•ECON^ OOPY, 
I6SS. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. \L S.jCopyright No. 



Shelf.. 



:SaO 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 



" 






PIONEERING IN 
THE SAN JUAN 

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF WORK DONE IN 

SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO DURING THE 

"GREAT SAN JUAN EXCITEMENT" 

BY THE ,-•' 

REV. GEORGE M. DARLEY, D.D. 



"Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for 
the gold where they find it.'"— Job xxviii. i. 

'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 
whole world, and lose his own soul ? " — St. Mark viii. j6. 

"Or what shall a man give in exchange forhissoul?" 
— St. Mark viii. 37. 




Fleming H. Revell Company 

Chicago : New York : Toronto 
1899 



38718 



Copyright, 1899, 
By Fleming H. Revell Company 













Zo ms TRIlife, 

EMMA JEAN DARLEY, 

who has the honor of being the first 
minister's wife to cross the sierra 
madre range of mountains in colorado, 

these pages 

Hre affectionately Deoicateo. 



PREFACE 

This book is an attempt to present, in simple 
words, the reminiscences of work performed by a 
Presbyterian missionary, in Southwestern Col- 
orado, during the "Great San Juan Excitement;" 
with the sincere desire to awaken a deeper interest 
in Home Missions. "Content to fill a little place, 

if God be glorified. ' ' 

G. M. D. 



CHAPTER 

I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 
VI. 
VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Pioneering in Preaching . . . .15 

Magg Hartman's Funeral ... 26 

A Wild Ride ....... 31 

Church Bells 36 

Lost on the Range . . . . . .40 

A Dead Faro Dealer 46 

Gospel Temperance Meetings in a "Live 

Mining Camp " . . . . • • 53 

" Burro Punching" 59 

My First Trip to the Animas Country . 63 

" Hell's Acre" 69 

Killed by a Snow Slide 76 

An Old Lady's Prayer .... 79 

An Irrepressible Boy 83 

Good Impression Made by Walking Through 

Deep Snow . . . . . .87 

Rough Experience of a Missionary's Wife 

and Children . . .... 90 

Poem by Rev. Philip Bevan, D.D. . . 95 

Comical Scenes in Church .... 98 

Crossing Swollen Mountain Streams . 102 

A Home Mission Problem .... 107 

Miners and Prospectors . . . . 113 

Buckskin Leggings 117 

Grand Scenery 122 

Terrible Honesty in the Face of Death . 128 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIV. Experience with Indians . . . . 131 

XXV. A Presbyterian Elder's Pluck . . .137 

XXVI. A Barrel Half Full of Rotten Onions for a 

Pulpit 140 

XXVII. The Kind of Men Needed at the Front . 143 

XXVIII. The "What I Used to Do in the East " Kind 

of a Christian 149 

XXIX. The Board of Church Erection . . 152 

XXX. Amusing 155 

XXXI. A Few Thoughts While on the Trail . 159 

XXXII. Lame Home Mission Churches . . . 164 

XXXIII. Farewell to San Juan .... 167 

XXXIV. Historical 170 

XXXV. A Queer Way of Looking at Death . 178 

XXXVI. Picking Bullets from the Pulpit the Sabbath 

Following Mob Violence . . .180 

XXXVII. A Burro Takes Part in Church Service . 184 

XXXVIII. Two Men Lynched 187 

XXXIX. A Wise Walk 190 

XL. No Waste in the Ministry of Love . . 204 

XLI. A San Juan Justice of the Peace, in 1878 221 

XLII. Perfection 224 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Portrait of George M. Darley . . . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

First Parsonage built on the Pacific Slope in Colorado . 16 

First Church built on the Pacific Slope in Colorado . 16 

Lake City, Colo., in 1877 38 

Del Norte, Colo., in 1882 38 

Dealing Faro in a San Juan Gambling Hall ... 48 

Prospector at Home 54 

Wheel of Fortune — Miners at Home in 1877 ... 54 
Bringing into Camp the Bodies of Two Men who were 

Killed by a Snow Slide . ... . . 76 

River Side Snow Tunnel, near Ouray, Colo. ... 76 

Dr. Darley carrying the Gospel to the Regions Beyond 88 
Prospector on His Way to a New Gold Field . . .114 

Prospector Returning " Busted " 114 

Four Ute Chiefs, Agent and Interpreter . . . .118 
The Famous Rose's Cabin, on Road to Summit of Uncom- 

pahgre Range 118 

Celebrated M ears' Toll Road, Promontory Point . .122 
Elder James K. Herring and Rev. Geo. M. Darley, D.D. 

ready for a Swift Run • 138 

Ouray, Colo., Looking East in 1898 168 

Celebrated Box Canon, One-fourth of a Mile from Ouray 222 

First Grand Jury in Ouray 222 



BEGINNING OF THE GREAT 
SAN JUAN EXCITEMENT 

"The Great San Juan Gold Excitement" dates 
back to 1874, when Enos T. Hotchkiss discovered 
the mine which bore his name for a number of 
years. Immediately upon the opening of this prop- 
erty, a rush was made into Lake City. This now 
famous mine, which lies three miles to the south of 
Lake City, was practically abandoned when, in 1879, 
Samuel Wendell relocated the property as the 
' ' Golden Fleece, ' ' and through Mr. Wendell it 
found its way into the hands of the present owners. 



Pioneering in the San Juan 



CHAPTER I 

PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

: 'As we stand and listen to a low and increasing hum, 
We hear the tramp of thousands that here in the future will 

come. 
They will come for the air and sunshine, 

They will come for scenery grand, 
They will come for the gold and silver, 

From every civilized land. ' ' — Prospector. 

In this age of electricity, when men think quick, 
live fast and die young as a general rule, reminis- 
cences are below par. Men prefer to look forward 
rather than backward. And yet we believe that it 
is well, at times, to take a look at the past, that we 
may see what progress Christianity has made in 
Colorado. 

More than twenty-two years have passed since I 
began preaching the Gospel in this State; and I 
can truthfully say that the churches have kept pace 
with the material growth and the increase in popu- 
lation. History teaches that Christianity generally 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

prospers in mountainous regions. The length, 
height, breadth and grandeur of our great mountain 
ranges are in perfect harmony with the rugged, 
grand and sublime evangelical doctrines presented 
by ministers of the Gospel. The great peaks remind 
me of many of the precious truths presented in the 
Bible — Pike's Peak, of comforting, strengthening, 
soul-cheering atonement; Sierra Blanca, of God's 
precious promises. At times this mountain is 
enveloped in dark clouds; yet they are always 
lifted and never mar her grandeur and beauty. So 
it is with God's children — dark clouds at times sur- 
round them; but these clouds are lifted by His 
almighty hand, and joyfully we "press toward the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus." 

In the spring of 1876 there was not a church 
building on the Pacific slope in Colorado. The first 
church was erected by the Presbyterians in Lake 
City and dedicated November 19, 1876 — just five 
months, to a day, from the time of organization. 
Lake City was a "live mining- camp, " largely made 
up of young men of that class who were willing to 
prospect and take all kinds of chances in order to 
make money; but they had no desire to work 
underneath the ground. Miners were scarce, while 
16 



PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

prospectors were numerous. No class of men knew 
better how to treat a minister they liked in a royal 
manner than the men who went into southwestern 
Colorado during the great San Juan "excitement" 
°f '75> '7 6 an d '77- Nor could a more intelligent, 
plucky, warm-hearted set of men be found; men 
who knew what was right. 

Among them were many who had been taught in 
Eastern homes, by pious parents, that "man's 
chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully 
enjoy him forever. " Yet strange as it now seems — 
when looking back to those exciting times — many of 
these men, from the best of homes, found their way 
into the large gambling-halls that were in all the 
camps ; claiming they only wished to see what was 
going on and not for the purpose of taking part in 
the games. Yet, notwithstanding these claims, 
many, after getting, as they thought, "the run of 
the game," did "fight the tiger." Some did so 
successfully ; others did not. 

When entering camps where no religious services 
had been held I invariably went to the right place 
to find an audience; and in every case was cour- 
teously and kindly received and generally told: 
"Just wait, Brother Darley, until the games can be 
stopped, and we will give you a chance at the 
17 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

boys." It was not always an easy matter to stop 
the games ; winners were usually willing, while the 
losers were not. But so soon as the games closed 
then "roulette," "keno, " "poker," and "faro" 
would give place for a time to the Gospel. 

A more convenient pulpit than a "faro-table" 
could not be found; nor a more respectful and 
intelligent audience. In what occasional singing 
we did have, men with trained voices, rich and 
sweet, would sing without books those grand old 
hymns: "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" and "Rock of 
Ages, Cleft for Me." With bowed heads they 
listened to the prayer ; often with tears in their eyes 
to the "old, old story, " being told as they had heard 
it "back East," while sitting in a pew beside father, 
mother, or fond wife and dear children. 

The contrast was as great between the Eastern 
pew and beer kegs, whisky barrels and chairs, 
as it was between the Eastern pulpit and a Western 
faro-table, behind which the minister stood ; but the 
Christ presented was the same^-and those men's 
souls were as dear to the Savior. In one camp I 
became acquainted with a "faro-dealer" who had a 
decidedly clerical look. His beautiful gray beard 
and ministerial dress added much to his elegant 
manners. He always called me "Brother Darley. " 
18 » 



PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

I said to a young man fresh from the East, as I 
met him at the door of a large gambling-hall: 
"Were you in the habit of entering such houses in 
the East?" He answered: "I was never in a 
saloon or gambling-house in my life until I came 
to this camp. My folks would be ashamed of me 
if they knew I frequented such places." Having 
hold of his hand, and the light shining in our faces, 
I said: "Should you be any less of a man out 
West than you were back East?" By the flash of 
his eye and the color in his face I saw that he was 
offended; but I held his hand and kept looking 
him in the eye. Finally he dropped his head and 
said: "I ought not to be." 

One Sabbath night, after service, it became 
necessary for me to visit a large dance-hall located 
in "Hell's Acre." I there talked with young men 
who less than an hour before were sitting in God's 
house. Even amid the thunders of the coming 
storm, the cry was heard : "On with the dance ! Let 
joy be unconfined!" During those years of toil, 
joy, sadness and rejoicing, I was often reminded 
of the words of the weeping Prophet: "Weep ye 
not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep 
sore for him that goeth away." Several times I 
was asked if I could afford to know so many sporting- 
19 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

men, and fast women. "Associations," said one 
sanctimonious man, "have a great deal to do with 
a minister's character." I replied that I believed 
with the old blacksmith, who said, when told that if 
he would associate with so and so it would give him 
character: "I can hammer out a better character on 
my anvil than any set of men can give me." If I 
could not know and, so far as necessary, "associate" 
with all classes, I was not the man for the place. 

In '76 La Veta was the terminal of the Denver 
and Rio Grande Railroad. It was a long, hard 
stage ride from La Veta into the San Juan country. 
During the day the grandeur of the scenery would 
interest passengers; but through the long nights 
even "old timers" grew tired and, so soon as the 
stage struck the "Slumgullion Road," which was 
far from being "freighters' paradise," the driver 
would join with the freighters in swearing at the 
Mexicans to "pull out of the road." On this road 
there was a fall of several thousand feet in about 
twelve miles ; and a few miles of that was corduroy. 
Where there was none, the freighters claimed that 
"every ten feet there was a stone projecting from 
six to eighteen inches and frequently on the oppo- 
site side a hole from six to eighteen inches deep, 
with a stump in the middle. ' ' 
20 



PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

The Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D. (ex-Moderator 
of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church), once said to me, while trying to get the 
crooks out of his legs and rub down the lumps 
that had risen on different parts of his body: 
"Brother Darley, I have staged it all over this 
Western country; I have staged it through the 
tamarack swamps of Wisconsin ; but I never staged 
it over such a road before." Dr. Jackson was always 
welcome at my mountain home, for he never 
growled, no matter how hard the trip. He has the 
pluck that I admire. 

In the seventies many difficulties had to be faced 
in the San Juan that were more than the average 
minister cared to face then, or would care to face 
now. To go beyond Lake City meant to go where 
there were no bridges across streams and, in some 
directions, no wagon roads — only trails throughout 
the greater part of the San Juan, and often they 
were very rough, while the distance between cabins 
was so great that frequently the missionary had 
to sleep on the ground. 

My walk of one hundred and twenty-five miles 
(more than half the distance through deep snow), in 
five days and four nights, is often spoken of by "old 
timers." All the streams had to be waded; and 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

when I reached Ouray, with swollen limbs, nearly 
used up, and suffering terribly, Messrs. George A. 
Scott and James McDonald invited me to their 
cabin and, after procuring a bottle of arnica, both 
went to work and did all they could to limber me 
up. On Sabbath I was hardly able to walk, so did 
not preach until Thursday of the following week. 
The sermon was the first preached in Ouray or in 
the Uncompahgre region. 

The first church built in Ouray, and the second 
on the western slope in Colorado, was a Presbyterian 
church, dedicated October 14, 1877. I say it, with- 
out fear of contradiction, that in no other frontier' 
town in Colorado (Ouray is no longer a frontier town) 
could the same amount of money be raised more easily 
than that so cheerfully given by the citizens of the 
camp for the erection of their first house of worship. 

When preparing to start home "Cap" Cline (who, 
with General Adams, afterwards rescued Mrs. 
Meeker and daughter from the White River Ute 
Indians) and others pled with me not to attempt to 
cross Engineer Mountain that day, for it was snow- 
ing hard in Ouray. But, like some other young men 
who lived in the San Juan at that time, my bump of 
caution was not very well developed, so started, 
and found nearly four feet of fresh snow above 



PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

"timber line." Thus, walking was difficult going 
into Ouray to preach the first sermon — and getting 
out of Ouray after the first church was dedicated. 
It was on this trip that I lost an elegant pair of 
buckskin leggings. 

We often speak of the rough experiences of 
frontier work, and of the roughness of the work 
itself, when compared with the smooth and more 
refined labor in our cities or in the old-established 
churches of the Eastern villages. Yet, after all, 
there is a sameness about the work that can be 
illustrated in this way. During my varied experi- 
ence in Colorado I have often officiated at funerals 
very different in appearance. A rough box holds 
the body and an old wagon is the hearse; the 
mourners and minister follow on foot. When the 
place of burial is reached, the hole in the ground is 
uneven in width, and boulders project on the sides. 
When we attempt to let down the box, the grave is 
too small ; so we lift it out and enlarge the grave. 
Finally the body is laid to rest, as the wind sighs 
among the tree tops and the mountains receive to 
their arms another body dear to someone. 

Again, I have been called to officiate at a funeral 
where the casket was a rare piece of workmanship, 
beautiful and costly; and the floral offerings from 
23 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

friends expensive and appropriate; and with the 
Rev. John N. Freeman, D. D., to offer one of his 
characteristic prayers, which for the moment helped 
lift the dark clouds. The lovely hearse and nodding 
plumes, followed by a long- line of carriages, were 
in striking contrast to the rickety old wagons behind 
which I have often walked. At the cemetery, the 
sides of the grave looked as though they had been 
planed; and the body of a dear friend (Arthur S. 
Adams) was laid to rest. Yet in both cases it was 
death. On rugged mountain side or in a beautiful 
cemetery, it is death. And so the Gospel is the 
same, whether preached in a gambling-hall, or in a 
fine church building. The Gospel is the same in 
all places. I believe in the depravity of the 
human race and I believe in the almighty power 
of the blood of Jesus Christ. "There is life for 
a look at the Crucified One," no matter by whom 
given or the place the penitent soul is in as he looks. 
I was pastor of our church at Del Norte when 
the first meeting of the present Synod of Colorado 
was held at that place and the "Presbyterian 
College of the Southwest" was located. Having 
been president of the college as well as pastor of 
the church, my warmest sympathies go out toward 
that institution. 

24 



PIONEERING IN PREACHING 

To-day our college at Del Norte is doing noble 
work for the Master. Rev. M. D. J. Sanchez, of 
whom ex-Senator Thomas M. Bowen said, while a 
trustee of the college, "There is a young man who 
is the peer of any young man of his age in 
Colorado, ' ' is among the first fruits of the college. 
Then there is Rev. A. J. Rodriguez, missionary to 
the Ute Indians, and many more who have 
graduated from the institution. 

When the last day dawns and the stars fall and 
the heavens roll together as a scroll, it will not be 
the Methodists only that will be before the throne 
of God clothed in white, nor the Baptists nor the 
Presbyterians only. It will be the redeemed out of 
every nation and kindred and tongue and people, 
whose souls have been washed clean in the blood of 
the Lamb. Therefore, ministers of the Gospel 
should love all classes — the high, the lowly, the rich, 
the poor — keeping constantly in mind that the Lord 
Jesus Christ goes before us. His spirit accompanies 
our words and convinces men of sin, of righteous- 
ness and judgment. If we are faithful in our work 
we shall be richly blessed here and hereafter ; for 
the harder we toil in the Master's vineyard now, 
the sweeter will be the rest in His house, by and by. 



CHAPTER II 

MAGG HARTMAN'S FUNERAL 

"One more unfortunate, 
Weary of breath, 
Rashly importunate, 
Gone to her death." 

"Who was her father? 
Who was her mother? 
Had she a sister? 
Had she a brother?" — Thomas Hood. 

If all the tears shed by parents whose daughters 
have gone astray were bottled, they would not be 
greater in quantity or more bitter than the tears 
shed by the erring ones. The first burst of passion 
and excitement of a fast life soon recoil and strike 
the wandering one a terrible blow, bringing to the 
sporting-woman's heart a deep sense of the distance 
there is between her and what women prize most. 

When asked, "Will you come to Magg Hartman's 
house and preach her funeral sermon?" I con- 
sented, because I believed it my duty to go wherever 
I was asked for the purpose of conducting funeral 
services. By so doing I had become acquainted 
with all classes. 

Magg Hartman lived in "Hell's Acre," a part of 
26 



MAGG HARTMAN'S FUNERAL 

the new mining-camp largely given up to the sport- 
ing class. As I entered the house a very tall, well- 
known character, who was sitting on the floor, rose 
and said as he took my hand: "Well, Parson, this 
is the way we all go." I replied: "Yes, we all 
must die, hut it depends on how we have lived, 
and in whom we have believed, as to the place we 
go when we die." "I guess that is so," said my 
tall friend ; for the man was a friend in the way of 
"backing the Parson" financially and by being 
accommodating in various ways. 

I then stepped to the side of the coffin and looked 
at Magg Hartman's more than ordinary face; for 
few faces were more remarkable looking and few 
lives had been stranger than that of this many-sided 
woman. As the "girls" came in from the "dance- 
halls" I took each one by the hand and spoke a 
kind word. When all was ready for the funeral 
service I noticed a strained attempt on their faces 
to "take it," which plainly said: "You hold a full 
hand now, so just wade in. ' ' Before the first eleven 
verses of the eighth chapter of St. John had been 
read, arms were unfolded and the strained look 
began to leave their faces; and as words void of 
severity were spoken tears began filling their eyes. 
Soon every head was bowed and, had I not 
27 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

witnessed such scenes before, I might have believed 
every one would leave the paths of sin and seek a 
better life. 

After the pall-bearers had fastened the top on the 
coffin one of the "girls" asked if I would go with 
them to the cemetery. Her request was granted. 
Who can tell what impressions the reading of God's 
Word, and the funeral sermon, made upon the 
minds and hearts of those outcasts of society, many 
of them mere girls? Men who have seen much of 
life know that there are thousands of bleeding, 
aching and sorrowing hearts that are struggling 
against the terrible current of prejudice and cold- 
heartedness that is so prevalent; battling hard 
against the sense of shame in their own hearts and 
against the powers of a cold world ; traveling in the 
most lonely of life's paths without one kind word to 
cheer, without one glimmer of light to guide their 
lonely footsteps until, discouraged, disheartened 
and crushed, these words of deepest gloom fall from 
their lips : 

"Go to the raging sea and say be still; 
Bid the wild tempest obey thy will ; 
Preach to the storm, and reason with despair: 
But tell not Misery's child to beware." 

Many are ready to cry: "It is their own fault. 



MAGG HARTMAN'S FUNERAL 

The young girl or young man ought to have remained 
at home and been good." Friends, how do you 
know that it is all their own fault? Who told you 
so? What means have you of knowing so much? 
Be honest, and acknowledge that you are ignorant 
regarding their temptations, surroundings, educa- 
tion and peculiar temperaments; the promises made 
them and broken — made by those you are pleased 
to take by the hand. Then try to have enough 
Christian charity and hard common sense to keep 
you from kicking the fallen. 

If the whole human race were constituted alike 
— all of the same temperament, all having equal 
advantages — then we might be able to judge all 
correctly; but, since there are such differences, we 
should be very slow in passing harsh judgment 
on anyone. It is well for the fallen that there are 
those on earth, as well as in Heaven, who can be 
"touched with the feeling of" their "infirmities." 

I trust that all Christians, while they cannot 
reasonably be expected to feel as kindly toward the 
fallen as some do, will remember that — 

"There's no life so lone and low 
But strength may yet be given, 
From narrowest lot on earth to grow 
The straighter up to Heaven. ' ' 

2Q 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

When Jericho was destroyed, not Rahab alone, but 
"all that were with her in the house" were saved, 
because "she did hide the messengers that were 
sent. ' ' 

It is a blessed thing when all in the house are 
saved — but how often it is otherwise ! This solemn 
and awful truth may cause some to have charity 
who at the present time are as devoid of it as the 
stones beneath our feet. The day may come when 
those who are rejoicing because no wanderer belongs 
to their family, may say, alas! — 

"From the same father's side, 
From the same mother's knee, 
One to lone darkness and frozen tide, 
One to the crystal sea." 



CHAPTER III 



A WILD RIDE 



"Chill airs and wintry winds, my ear 
Has grown familiar with your song," 

— Longfellow. 

Some years ago, while reading the "Denver 
Republican," I saw an article taken from the 
"Hinsdale Phonograph" : "San Juan Weather Com- 
parisons. " In it I found the following: "While 
congratulating ourselves for the splendid weather 
San Juan is experiencing at present, we may- 
remember that every season is not this way. In 
1879 the snow was eight feet deep on the Con- 
tinental Divide the last of December, and the mail 
from Del Norte to Lake City was carried the entire 
distance on sleds from November 25 to April 8, 
a period of almost four months and a half. ' ' 

The reading of this brought to my mind, with a 
freshness not altogether pleasant, one of the wildest 
rides I ever had — and I had many a wild one during 
the seventies. For a month that winter no mail 
could be carried from Clear Creek to Powder Horn, 
except on a "snow-shoer's" back. One of the drivers 
31 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

nearly lost his life while trying to get through with 
a sled. A large number of men went from our 
camp and tried to "pack" the snow so that the mail 
could be brought in on sleds, but the storms were 
severe and the snow deep; so the plan was 
abandoned. 

We decided that it was impossible to get papers 
or circulars, but letters we must have. A Swede by 
the name of Fjelley, one of the best "snow-shoers" 
in the San Juan, was employed to carry letters. He 
used the narrow, eleven-feet snow-shoes. I loaned 
him part of my "outfit," and, not being willing to 
accept pay for the use of it, he gave my little girl a 
silver dollar, which she has kept and calls her 
"snow-shoe dollar." 

It was necessary for me to go to the railroad, 
which by that time was one hundred and fifteen 
miles from Lake City, having been built as far as 
Alamosa. But, before the headwaters of the Rio 
Grande could be reached, the great Sierra Madre 
range of mountains and the Continental Divide 
had to be crossed. I asked the stage agent when he 
thought an attempt would be made to cross the 
range with horses and sleighs. He said he would 
let me know as soon as it was decided to make the 
attempt. Soon after he told me: "You can keep 
32 



A WILD RIDE 

it to yourself, for several want to go, and we cannot 
take them, for the chances are we won't get through ; 
the drivers say 'Darley can go.' We are going to 
try it with two light sleighs ; one span of horses to 
each. Be ready at midnight, when the crust on 
the snow will be hard. ' ' 

At midnight we started — John King and myself 
in the front sleigh and Charlie Swift in the other. 
We had traveled less than two miles when the sleigh 
we were in upset and spilled us out. King clung 
to the lines, while I rolled down the side of the 
mountain and landed against a tree. In the upset 
our glass stage lamps were broken and we were 
left in the dark. Charlie Swift had the laugh on us. 
By daylight we were at Powder Horn Station, near 
which, in after years, proved to be a favorite place 
for "road agents" to collect toll from travelers. 
After a good breakfast and considerable conjectur- 
ing about our ever reaching Clear Creek Station, we 
started on the wildest ride I ever had. We fairly 
flew. The gulches were filled with snow and the 
rocks were covered ; in many places the trees were 
snowed under. We had plenty of room and down- 
grade most of the way. "Talk about horses!" the 
driver said, "those grays would be human if they 
could talk." It did seem to me that they under- 

33 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

stood every word King said to them while they were 
being "hooked up"; for evidently they realized 
just what they were to do. No whip was needed to 
urge them to their best. "Barlow and Sanderson" 
never had finer horses on any of their great west- 
ern stage lines. Whenever the horses' feet broke 
through the crust they would gather themselves 
for a fresh spring and, quick as a flash, dart 
ahead. The driver understood the horses, the horses 
understood the driver, and all knew the danger. I 
had many a wild ride in the mountains of the San 
Juan, but never anything to equal that one. By 
taking my chances that night with the drivers, I 
was "billed" through to Del Norte free. 

Traveling in the San Juan, during the years of stag- 
ing, was not considered a great pleasure by many, 
partly on account of the roughness of the roads 
and partly on account of the peculiarities of the 
Mexican freighters. They invariably camped in 
the road, and it was amusing, whenever one of their 
wagons would get ' ' stuck, ' ' to see a driver running 
around it to turn his cattle one way, then in front of 
the "leaders" to turn them the other way. A 
Mexican does not drive cattle like an American — by 
keeping on one side and using a long whip. In 
addition to corduroy, holes, stones, stumps, steep 

34 



A WILD RIDE 

grades and mud, many of the roads were "sidling" 
and the curves very sharp, so that four horses were 
all that could be handled by a stage-driver. One 
night I was in a stage-coach with thirteen other 
victims. The lower part of the "boot" and the 
back part of the coach were filled with mail. With 
such a heavy load the driver and express-messenger 
claimed that the brakes could not hold. If there 
was a big dance in the camp, the brakes would not 
work, or else were not sufficient to hold the coach. 
Some were uncharitable enough to say that Charlie 
Swift wished to get in ahead of time to attend the 
ball. On the night to which I refer, Charlie declared 
that it would be unsafe to try to hold the horses. 
So they went down-grade on a swinging lope, while 
the passengers held on and "let her go." 



35 



CHAPTER IV 



CHURCH BELLS 



"I've heard bells chiming 
Full many a clime in, 
Falling sublime in 
Cathedral shrine, 
While at a glib rate 
Brass tongues would vibrate ; 
But all this music 

Spoke not like thine." 

— Father Prout (Francis Mahony). 

For aught we know to the contrary, everything 
that leads men to God's house may be a part of His 
plan for the winning of souls to himself ; although it 
be nothing more than a church bell. Anything that 
helps a man's thoughts to turn toward home and 
good influences, when he is far from home, proves a 
blessing. All that leads man to call to mind hal- 
lowed associations does him good. Man is said to 
be a "religious animal." Apart from the influences 
of religion and home he would soon become a wild 
animal; for it is under the teachings, and by the 
power of the religion of Jesus Christ, and the hal- 
lowed surroundings of Christian homes that we are 
lifted up and our affections purified. Without these 
.36 



CHURCH BELLS 

things an individual, family, community or nation 
would sink. Many who appear to appreciate home 
ties claim that none are benefited by Christianity ; 
but I question if they believe it. 

The mountain towns in Colorado are not free from 
this class, but have a large number of men profess- 
ing to hold views contrary to what the Christian 
religion teaches. What we call "bold infidelity" 
shows itself plainly where it is not policy to remain 
covered ; and in no region can we find men who are 
so indifferent to religious influence as in new min- 
ing-camps. Yet this class like to see "improve- 
ments in the camp, ' ' and often lend a helping hand. 

After our church was built in Lake City, it being 
the first one on the Pacific slope in Colorado, saint 
and sinner expressed themselves as being very 
proud of it; and showed their appreciation by 
attending services and "paying for their preach- 
ing." Still, one important thing was lacking. 
Nowhere in Colorado, west of the Sierra Madre 
range of mountains, was there a bell of any kind for 
public use larger than a dinner bell. One day, to 
my great joy, Mr. Theodore Little, Jr., informed 
me that his father, Mr. Theodore Little, Sr., of 
Morristown, New Jersey, had bought a bell for our 
church — and would "pay the freight." When a 
37 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

man said "pay the freight,"* in those days, it often 
meant a great deal more than the first cost. The 
bell was freighted in a wagon across two great 
mountain ranges — the Sangre de Cristo and the 
Sierra Madre — also over the Continental Divide. 

The bell was presented to our church in 1877. 
Often, during the early days of that camp, men have 
said after church services: "As we came toward the 
camp we heard the sound of a church bell and were 
surprised; for we had no idea that there was a 
church in Lake City. " It no doubt reminded many 
of home and loved ones far away, when they heard 
the peals of that bell ringing out an invitation to 
enter God's house. It could be heard for miles 
and the grand old mountains seemed to take up the 
sound and pass it on. Since then that bell has called 
many to the house of prayer, who without it would 
never have known that there were church services in 
the camp — and not until the last day shall we know 
how great its influence for good may have been. 

Years after the Lake City church was built, I was 
busy erecting the one at Del Norte, when United 
States Senator Thomas M. Bowen said to me: 

* Some very amusing stories were told about merchants claiming that 
the high price of everything in which they dealt was on account of "freight 
being so high." IJven needles cost, ten times what they did "back East," 
because "freight was so high." 

38 






■o-,„ 



«/-.*c'.'/A JjCMJ vk 



CHURCH BELLS 

"Brother Darley, order any kind of a bell you desire 
for your beautiful new church and bring me the 
bill." We appreciated his generosity, for he had 
already contributed liberally toward the building. 
The bell, without any fixtures, weighed 734 pounds 
and was the finest bell in southwestern Colorado. 
It was cast in Troy, New York. Without the Sen- 
ator's knowledge, I had his name and date of 
presentation cast on the bell. The Presbyterian 
College of the Southwest used it as well as the 
church. I regret to say that when the building 
burned, November 25/1893, the bell was destroyed. 



CHAPTER V 



LOST ON THE RANGE 



"I am not a little sunburnt by the glare of life, but weather- 
beaten by its storms. " — Stephen A. Douglas. 

After sending an account of my experience on 
the range to the Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., he 
wrote the following, which appeared in the ' ' Rocky- 
Mountain Presbyterian" and was copied by many 
American and European papers: 

"The esprit de corps of the Presbytery of Colo- 
rado is very great. [We had but one Presbytery at 
that time.] With a laudable ambition to carry the 
Gospel to the most distant centers of coming influ- 
ence, it stops at no undertaking, however difficult or 
dangerous, whenever the interests of the church 
are concerned. And by indomitable energy, endur- 
ance and courage seeming impossibilities have been 
overcome. 

' ' During the meeting of the spring Presbytery it 
was deemed expedient that the services at Silverton, 
which were suspended last fall, should be resumed 
at an early day. Rev. George M. Darley, of Lake 
City, was requested to take the matter in charge. 



LOST ON THE RANGE 

"Two hundred and twenty miles by rail and one 
hundred and seventy miles by stage brought him 
from the Presbytery to his mountain home. Secur- 
ing a horse he started on the 17th of May, 1877, to 
cross the summit of the great Sierra Madre range. 
Slowly toiling up the valley of the Lake Fork of 
the Gunnison, with the wind hourly increasing in 
strength, he reached Lake San Christoval, 9,000 
feet above the sea, to encounter a driving snow- 
storm. 

"On and upward through the storm until, with 
frozen face and benumbed limbs, he reached a 
miner's cabin and, going in to warm, found a Pres- 
byterian family who insisted on his remaining all 
night. At four o'clock the next morning he was 
again in the saddle, facing the great snow-crest of 
the continent which loomed far above him. before 
accomplishing a mile the storm, which had subsided 
in the night, was upon him again with double 
fury. 

"After an hour's climbing a welcome cabin 
afforded him breakfast. While there Gus Talbot, 
who carries the mail over the mountains on snow- 
shoes and has seen a hundred avalanches thunder 
and crash across his trail, came along with the mail, 
having traveled sixteen miles since one o'clock that 
41 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

morning. By seven a. m. they had reached Bur- 
rows Park, ten thousand five hundred feet above the 
sea. This was as far as they could ride. From 
there on they must walk on snow-shoes. At the 
park were a number of miners waiting to cross the 
range, but, as the storm was still raging, none of 
them dared make the attempt. A consultation was 
had. It seemed madness to venture. But the 
mail-carrier was determined to make the attempt, 
and Mr. Darley caught the spirit. Said he: 
'Darley, I have carried the mail across here for 
years. Again and again have I crossed when I 
could not see as far as the point of my snow-shoe. 
You have faced the storm twenty-two miles yester- 
day, dare you face it twenty-three miles farther with 
me?' 

"With the great calmness of men who understood 
the perils before them, they started — Gus Talbot 
with forty pounds of mail on his back and Mr. 
Darley with his blankets. 

"Three miles brought them above timber-line. 
The snow-clouds drifted and surged around them. 
Every landmark was hidden. It seemed as if they 
were off in space with nothing in sight except the 
snow at their feet. On they plunged into that 
space, every few minutes stopping to gain breath. 
42 



LOST ON THE RANGE 

"At length they knew that they were descending, 
and supposed that they had turned the summit. 
But soon their hopes were dashed by coming to an 
ascent again. Knowing that something was wrong, 
they turned to the left, and soon crossed their own 
track, and the horrible suspicion began to dawn 
upon them that they were lost. For three hours 
they had been plunging forward, unable to see any- 
thing before or around them. Fifteen minutes (it 
seemed hours) later and they again crossed their 
track, and the dread suspicion became a certainty. 
They were lost ! Oh that the clouds would open one 
half second so that they could catch a glimpse of 
some landmark! But impenetrable clouds still 
enveloped them. Knowing that their only hope was 
to descend, they turned in their tracks and started 
downward. Soon they were conscious of a rapid 
descent, when all at once the mail-carrier dropped 
from view — gone over a precipice! With horror 
Mr. Darley sprang to one side as a great cake of 
snow gave way under his feet and followed the mail- 
carrier below. For a moment he seemed paralyzed ; 
his heart seemed to cease to beat. Gathering up 
his consciousness, he at once started to the rescue. 
Groping his way around to the base of the cliff he 
found Mr. Talbot crawling out of the snow with the 

43 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

mail bags still on his back. The snow had broken 
the fall and saved his life. With great thankfulness 
they started on again. Soon a dim, dark line was 
seen below them, and the glad cry burst forth — 'The 
timber! The timber!' 

"With new energy they pressed forward and 
were soon sheltered from the storm in the pines, 
under which they lunched on a couple of biscuits. 
Half an hour later they are at the mining-town of 
Animas Forks — saved ! The storm was still severe 
in their faces. Silverton was still fourteen miles 
away, and their trail led across the track of many an 
avalanche. Bat so much greater were the dangers 
through which they had passed, that the rest of the 
way seemed easy. After a good meal they started 
down the Animas and made Silverton that night. 

"The next day Gus Talbot, the plucky mail- 
carrier, told the people that they could 'tie to 
George M. Darley, for, out of more than one hun- 
dred men he had piloted across the range, the 
Presbyterian preacher was the only one that had 
the grit to keep with him all the way. ' 

' ' But I hear one and another of my readers say- 
ing, 'want of judgment,' 'foolish,' 'mistaken zeal,' 
etc. It is very easy, in a comfortable home or 
under other circumstances, to criticise and judge 

44 



LOST ON THE RANGE 

what you would or would not do, but we who are on 
the frontier know that if the Church would do her 
duty and give the Gospel to the 'regions beyond' 
now, as in the days of the apostles and martyrs, 
some of her ministers must needs face physical 
hardships and sufferings and dangers like the ship- 
wreck and stonings and beatings and perils of Paul. 
The men that observe the wind and regard the 
clouds and consult their comfort are not the men 
for the front. We need sterner material. We need 
men that can endure hardness, face dangers, take 
the chances, attempting seeming impossibilities, not 
counting even their lives dear unto them, if thereby 
the Church can be advanced. And the Church 
should thank God that she has a ministry willing to 
do this work. All honor to the pioneers of the 
Church." 



45 



CHAPTER VI 



A DEAD FARO-DEALER 



'The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven, 
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven ; 
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. * ' 

—Thomas Hood. 



'To live uprightly is sure the best, 

To save ourselves, and not to damn the rest. ' ' 

— Dryden. 

An out-and-out manly Christian — one who believed 
that Christianity is the backbone of the highest type 
of manhood ; one whose only fear was to do wrong ; 
one who was always ready to render assistance to 
the needy, or to those in danger — had the respect of 
every man in the camp, whether he was a Christian 
or a faro-dealer ; while those who were continually 
offering the Pharisee's prayer, holding on to the 
almighty dollar and making excuses for not step- 
ping to the front when either distress or danger 
called, were heartily despised. Whenever one of 
these Pharisaical creatures came to me bemoaning 
the wickedness of our camp, and saying, "It is 
4 6 



A DEAD FARO-DEALER 

unwise to spend time trying to reach the sporting 
fraternity, they are so bad, ' ' these words of Robert 
Burns would come to my mind : 

"My son, these maxims make a rule 

And lump them aye thegither ; 
The rigid righteous is a fool, 

The rigid wise anither ; 
The cleanest corn that e'er was dight 

May have some pyles o' chaff in ; 
So ne'er a fellow creature slight 

For random fits o' daffin." 

No good citizen has any defense to make or 
apologies to offer for wrong-doing. Yet every 
Christian, while hating sin, should love the sinner. 
Association with all classes during the San Juan 
excitement taught me that many of the reckless 
class, notwithstanding their faults, were neither 
narrow-minded nor selfish. Though they gave from 
impulse, rather than principle, they were often 
very generous ; not to their friends only, but also to 
a fallen foe. 

I know that good people consider a "faro-dealer" 
"a very bad man." This is true in part. It 
depends on what we mean by "a very bad man." 
If we look at a faro-dealer from a Christian stand- 
point he is certainly "a very bad man." If we 

47 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

consider him from a good citizen's standpoint he is 
just as bad. But, looking at him from the stand- 
point of fair-dealing, "outside his faro-dealing," 
and the way a faro-dealer may treat a man when 
he is down, or the way such men often respond 
when asked to aid the poor whom they have never 
met — then, for the time being, they are not "very 
bad men." 

When it was known that "Ben" House had died 
at the "San Juan Central," a large adobe dance- 
hall, many said: "Ben was one of the best-hearted 
boys in the camp. ' ' Among those generally called 
the "boys" a feeling existed peculiar to that class 
and soon manifested itself. They decided that 
"Ben" having been engaged in a public business — 
although the kind of place in which he died was 
not in keeping with a great display at his funeral — 
the stores ought to be closed during the funeral 
services, and that "just as good a send off ought to 
be given Ben as possible. ' ' 

After most of the preliminaries had been 
arranged, "Big Hank," one of Ben's intimate 
friends, came and stood by the remains, and as tears 
coursed down his cheeks he gave me a very glowing 
description of the departed. What "nerve," what 
"generosity," how no man could "ever get Ben to 
48 



A DEAD FARO-DEALER 

go back on a friend, no matter how tight a place 
that friend was in. ' ' This eulogy was interspersed 
with all the oaths "Big Hank" could call to mind, 
when so filled with grief. He swore just to be 
emphatic. If one man in that camp "swore by- 
note," "Big Hank" was the man. As he finished 
eulogizing his dead friend, I noticed two "girls" 
from one of the dance-halls coming into the build- 
ing. (The remains had been carried to a hall on the 
main street.) I knew they were coming to pay their 
respects to "Ben." One was a tall woman, known 
as "Sorrel Top, " on account of the color of her hair; 
the other a short, thick-set Mexican. To my sur- 
prise "Big Hank" was angry, and would not permit 
either of the "girls" to look at "Ben." Turning to 
me, he said: "I tell you, Mr. Darley, we are going 
to have a decent funeral out of this, and none of 
that crowd can come near Ben now." But I 
differed with him about who should come "near Ben 
now," so sent him to get something that was 
needed, and while he was away invited both "girls" 
to look at "Ben." They were not devoid of feeling 
or tenderness. The woman's heart was not entirely 
gone; and a few kind words were appreciated. 
Having seen much of life, my heart often warms 
with sympathy for the fallen. 
49 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Robert Burns was a good judge of human nature, 
and no doubt was conscious that his prayer in the 
prospect of death would strike a responsive chord 
in many hearts : 

"O Thou unknown Almighty, cause 
Of all my hope and fear, 
In whose dread presence, ere an hour, 
Perhaps, I must appear; 

"If I have wandered in those paths 
Of life I ought to shun ; 
As something, loudly, in my breast, 
Remonstrates I have done; 

"Thou know'st that Thou hast form'd me 
With passions wild and strong; 
And listening to their witching voice 
Has often led me wrong. 

"Where human weakness has come short, 
Or frailty stept aside, 
Do Thou, All Good, for such thou art 
In shades of darkness hide. 

"Where with intention I have err'd, 
No other plea I have, 
But, Thou art good, and goodness still 
Delighteth to forgive." 



A DEAD FARO-DEALER 

I have frequently thought how little we know of 
what goes on between the soul of a wandering one 
and their God, when they are brought face to face 
with death; what cries for mercy may ascend to 
God, who sent his only Son into this sin-cursed 
world to seek after and "to save that which was 
lost." How, in such an hour, memory's pages may 
be revealing again to the wanderer what was 
written thereon in childhood's happy days by pious 
parents; and although covered many years by the 
rubbish of sin, it is not impossible for God's Spirit 
to touch the heart and turn the prodigal one to 
genuine repentance, thus leading him to seek sal- 
vation through the merits of a crucified and risen 
Redeemer. We have the immutable Word of the 
living God for it that even the brands plucked from 
the burning shall be saved. "Come now and let us 
reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins 
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though 
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ' ' 
God forbid that anyone should be able to truthfully 
say, "No man cares for my soul." 

"Then gently scan your brother man, 
Still gentler sister woman; 
Though they may gang a kenning wrang, 
To step aside is human ; 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

One point must still be greatly dark, 

The reason why they do it ; 
And just as lamely can we mark 

How far perhaps they rue it. 

'Who made the heart, 'tis he alone 

Decidedly can try us ; 

He knows each chord — its various bias ; 
Then at the balance let's be mute, 

We never can adjust it ; 
What's done we partly may compute, 

But know not what's resisted. " 



5- 



CHAPTER VII 

GOSPEL TEMPERANCE MEETINGS IN A "LIVE" MINING- 
CAMP 

"There is in every human being, however ignoble, some 
hint of perfection, some one place where, as we may fancy, the 
veil is thin which hides the divinity behind it." 

— Confucian Classics. 

Intemperance is the greatest curse in our beloved 
land. Whenever "a temperance wave" strikes us it 
seems to strike all over. What is known as the 
"Murphy Movement" struck our camp soon after 
the movement was started. "The bo)^" being 
hard-up for cash that winter, we knew that many 
would most likely be willing to "swear off" for a 
time, possibly until the snow began to melt in the 
spring. 

When that time came and another "boom" began, 
we felt confident that a goodly number, if many 
should sign the pledge, would "swear on again." 
Still, a few months' respite from drink would do them 
good. Therefore we decided to try, with God's 
help and the assistance of all who were willing to 
engage in the good work, to do what we could in the 
interest of temperance. 

53 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

To do this work in a "live" mining-camp, where 
so many were engaged in the devil's own business, 
needed wisdom as well as courage, that the work 
might be pushed vigorously without creating a feel- 
ing of hatred toward those who favored temperance. 

When first mentioned I met opposition where I 
least expected it — from Christian men, officers in 
the church. Not that they opposed temperance 
work, but saloons, gambling-halls and dance-houses 
were so numerous that it was considered unwise to 
attempt reform work. 

Having but one motto — the same I afterwards 
placed at the head of my religious newspaper, "If 
God be for us, who can be against us?" — I said to 
the church officers: "If I cannot deliver my lectures 
in the church I will deliver them some other place. ' ' 
No objections were made to my using the church 
building. 

The first lecture was given December 18, 1877, — 
subject: "Come, Take a Drink." That all might 
know what to expect, I had posters printed with 
"Come, Take a Drink" in large letters, and the 
rest of the poster in small type. The posters were 
placed everywhere, not forgetting to put a liberal 
supply in the saloons. The subject struck the 
saloon-men's "funny bump," and all made some 

54 



GOSPEL TEMPERANCE MEETINGS 

good-natured remark about "being on hand that 
night to take a drink with the Parson. ' ' 

Every night while the meetings were held our 
church was packed, men standing in the broad aisle, 
and all the vim and vinegar the Parson possessed 
were put into those lectures. 

By referring to my Pastor's Register I find 
written, "Grand success! God with us in the move- 
ment! Eighty-four signed the pledge the first 
night!" The good work went on for thirty-one 
nights. Over six hundred signed the pledge. 
Night after night men came forward and signed who 
had the manhood to keep the pledge. Among the 
number was one who is now an honored minister of 
the Gospel, doing a grand work for the Master. At 
the time I believed him to be an unpolished dia- 
mond ; and it has been so proven, for a more suc- 
cessful worker cannot be found. 

At first the "whisky element" laughed at the 
idea of much being done in the line of temperance 
work in a "live" camp. Being without knowledge 
either of the love or the power of God, they sup- 
posed that they would remain undisturbed in their 
wickedness. But before the meetings progressed 
one week the "whisky element" had organized to 
fight the movement, and a few Christians were timid 

55 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

enough to ask their pastor to be "cautious" in all 
he said; for some of the lectures had "created a 
great deal of feeling." But the pastor did not have 
a "cautious fit on" and, knowing that he was right, 
went ahead. 

After lecturing on the subject, "Does It Pay?" I 
could see by the looks on the faces of my best friends 
that they thought I had said too much. Not hav- 
ing said anything I was unwilling to "back," I 
stepped from behind the pulpit and remarked: "I 
have one request to make of my friends, and that is, 
not to offer apologies for anything Mr. Darley has 
said, for I mean every word, and am ready to face 
any man who objects without a pulpit between us ; 
for this is a square-toed fight between right and 
wrong." A saloon-keeper standing near the door 
said: "Damn him, let him go; the more we say, the 
worse he gets. ' ' 

Before the meetings closed almost all the attor- 
neys in camp had made one or more temperance 
speeches. The Catholic priest delivered one tem- 
perance lecture for us. All "old timers" remember 
those meetings, and since leaving San Juan I have 
met men who then signed the pledge and have 
kept it. 

While the movement was at its height I met four 
56 



GOSPEL TEMPERANCE MEETINGS 

men, on Silver Street, all decked out in blue ribbons 
— ribbon around their hats, around their waists and 
from their shoulders to their waists — all as "drunk 
as lords!" — all had signed the pledge ! So soon as 
they saw me, they began yelling: "Here are some 
of your converts, Brother Darley ! " I thought that 
they looked as though someone had converted them, 
but surely the Lord had not. 

One night during Christmas week, after a very 
interesting and successful meeting, Mrs. Darley 
said : ' ' My heart aches for the young men in this 
camp, away from home and home influences. I 
wish our house were large enough to keep open 
house on New Year's Day; we could then invite 
every young man in the camp to call." After con- 
sultation we decided to try to rent a large store- 
building that was vacant, if it could be secured, and 
then ask the ladies to meet and consider plans. 
Early next morning we learned that we could have 
the building free. With the same energy and pluck 
that had characterized their former work, the ladies 
began making arrangements. It was announced 
that they would keep open house in said store-build- 
ing, on New Year's Day, from 9 a. m. to 10 p. m. 
Long tables were set and loaded with substantial 
food ; a piano was "provided and the day enlivened 
57 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

with music ; in the evening brief addresses were 
made. The pledge was placed on a table near the 
door and forty-five signed it. 

Only two intoxicated men were seen in the camp 
New Year's Day. Toward evening I met one of 
them, a young man, and after talking to him invited 
him to go home with me. We talked for over an 
hour. When leaving my house he said: "I will not 
promise to sign the pledge, but will walk around till 
I am sober; then I will go to the store-building." 

About 9 p. m. he came in, ate a hearty meal, and 
without being asked signed the pledge. Years 
afterward I met him in Alamosa. He told me he 
kept the pledge six months. Our ladies received 
over six hundred calls. This was the way we kept 
open house the first day of the New Year, 1878, in a 
"live" mining-camp. 



53 



CHAPTER VIII 



BURRO-PUNCHING 



"All things hold their march 
As if by one great will ; 
Moves one moves all — 
Hark to the footfall 
On, on forever." — Miss Mar tine ait. 

"Burro-punching" is a familiar term, where the 
business is followed, and means to walk behind a 
"pack-train" punching the patient, sure-footed and 
valuable, although greatly abused little animal. 

Often have I walked behind a burro when going 
to preach the Gospel in the "regions beyond. " The 
term "burro-puncher" became so common during 
the early days of the "Great San Juan Excitement" 
that all who had anything to do with the little 
animal were called "burro-punchers." Some who 
are now counted among the "leading lights" in 
Colorado were glad to have a burro carry their 
"grub" and blankets when first they went into the 
San Juan. This was a safe way of traveling, con- 
sidering the roughness of the trails. No one feared 

59 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

being wrecked by a misplaced switch or a broken 
rail. Having our own provisions and blankets, we 
were independent travelers. 

As a personal and particular friend of the faithful 
beast that has done so much to help develop Colo- 
rado, I regret that many believe the burro has culti- 
vated the swearer as much as he has the state. 
Those who abuse the burro and swear at him like a 
pirate, curse everything; not because they are pro- 
voked, but because they are habitual swearers. 
When men have excused themselves for cursing on 
the ground that the burro is a "stubborn animal," 
I have answered : "Treat you as a burro is treated 
and you will become as stubborn as he." 

The general belief among packers seems to be 
that a burro has no feeling, knows neither joy nor 
pain and expects to be mistreated. Burros suffer 
terribly, and if men are to be punished for cruelty 
to animals (I sincerely hope they may be), some men 
will discover that none of God's creatures can be 
tortured and the culprit go free. "A righteous man 
regardeth the life of his beast," but the average 
"burro-puncher" seems to think that burros never 
die. They "just dry up and blow away." I admit 
they are hard to kill. A "baby burro" fell from the 
top of a cliff sixty feet in height, into the Gunnison 
60 



" BURRO-PUNCHING " 

River, and was not injured. On Bear Creek Trail, 
about five miles above Ouray, one packed with flour 
fell two hundred feet ; the weight of the flour turned 
the burro heels up, and, striking in the snow, his life 
was saved. Yet the animal can be killed and it some- 
times dies a natural death. While crossing deep 
streams, unless their ears are tied, they will drown ; 
but by tying them up they can be pulled across 
without danger. 

After a rope is tied to the burro's neck he is 
pushed into the stream. The men on the opposite 
bank begin pulling and, although the burro may go 
under repeatedly, he is landed all right. As soon 
as his ears are untied his voice is loosened and 
breaks forth in trumpet tones of rejoicing, loud 
enough to be heard far and near. 

Those who are unacquainted with the trails in 
new mining-regions, and the way men travel 
through Indian countries where there are no houses, 
bridges or wagon roads, have no idea of the diffi- 
culties that must be faced. In the winter of '79 a 
man brought a burro from Mineral Point, at the 
head of the Uncompahgre River, over Engineer 
Mountain, to the head of Henson Creek, on snow- 
shoes. He made the shoes of sole leather and 
taught the burro to use them. It was slow work, 
61 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

yet he succeeded in getting his "jack" across the 
range. This may sound "fishy," but it is true. 
Where a burro and a "burro-puncher" cannot go, 
no other creature need try. 



62 



CHAPTER IX 

MY FIRST TRIP TO THE ANIMAS COUNTRY 

"An old divine once wrote from the frontier to the students 
of Princeton : 'We want strong oxen here ; we have plenty of 
roots.' " — R. A. McConnell, Esq. 

My first trip into the Animas country was made 
at the request of Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., who 
was Synodical Missionary for more territory than I 
can remember. At that time the Synod of Colorado 
embraced Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, 
New Mexico, Arizona and any other portion that 
was "lying around loose." 

In company with two gentlemen, one an editor, 
afterward a partner with "Brick" Pomeroy in his 
big tunnel scheme near Breckenridge, Colorado, I 
started for Animas City. The object of my trip 
was to explore the Animas country in the interest 
of religion in general and of Presbyterianism in 
particular. 

All went well until we struck the deep snow on 
the range between the Lake Fork of the Gunnison 
and the headwaters of the Animas River (above 
"timber line"). It was in July, 1877. 
63 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

A trail had been packed by the "burro-punchers, " 
that they might cross to Animas Forks with their 
pack-trains. Being very narrow, the editor's horse 
stepped out of it, and down went the horse. Then 
the fun began. The more the horse plunged the 
deeper he went. We were without shovels, and 
therefore in trouble ; but fortunately we found, near 
timber line, some miners working a "prospect." 
With their shovels and assistance we managed to dig 
and pack snow until we got the horse on the trail. At 
Animas Forks we parted company with the editor 
and journeyed down the Animas River, reaching 
Silverton that night. In the morning I asked the 
man who fed my horse — two feeds of corn of five 
pounds each — how much I owed him. He said he 
had often heard of Mr. Darley, and guessed I was 
the preacher, and would not "strike" me very 
heavy. My bill was two dollars and fifty cents, or 
twenty-five cents a pound for the corn. I paid it 
and thanked the man, for I knew the amount was 
very reasonable. Corn packed in on burros means 
expense. One man who had the same amount of 
corn and hay for his horse, swore like a trooper 
when he found his bill was five dollars; but his 
swearing did not reduce the amount for horse feed. 
The man who furnished the feed remarked, very 
64 



MY FIRST TRIP 

dryly, "I am not in this country for my health." 
This swearer wanted to be piloted to Animas City, 
a town at that time of thirty-three cabins. When 
we were introduced I could see, by the curl on his 
lips at the mention of "Reverend," that he would 
not be an agreeable traveling-companion. Our 
party increased to four. This swearer was called a 
gentleman because he had money, wore good 
clothes and went in polite society. 

Many believe that "rough men" or else the 
smooth sporting characters are the men who delight 
to swear at and, if the opportunity is given, insult a 
minister of the Gospel. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth. Such men, as a general rule, treat a 
minister respectfully. The class who love to jeer 
and insult ministers belong to what are commonly 
called "smart Alexes" — men who claim to have 
been "well trained," dress well, read infidel books 
and make pretensions to some position in what they 
call good society. 

I had "sized" my man up and concluded that 
he had more impudence and general cussedness 
about him than brains; so was ready for him. 
The trail was extremely rough. My horse was 
small and had been on more trips than were for his 
good. On that part of the trail known as "Old 
65 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Coal Bank Hill," when a long way up, my horse fell 
while jumping to catch a footing, and rolled more 
than fifty feet. I was walking behind and came 
near being carried down with him. The trail was 
certainly rough. 

Before going far my swearing acquaintance 
seemed disposed to enliven the hard ride of almost 
sixty miles by having some fun at the "Parson's" 
expense. He finally called out: "Parson, this is not 
the road to heaven." Being already loaded, I 
answered: "No, but there are plenty of such men 
as you on like trails going to hell, and I am doing 
what I can to save them. " That ended his attempts 
to have fun at the "Parson's" expense. 

We failed to reach Animas City that night, so 
were compelled to camp. I was without blankets, 
but my companion shared his. It being my object 
to find out as much as possible about that part of 
Colorado, I left the party next morning and started 
for Hermosa Creek. Finding a well-worn deer trail, 
I followed that. It led me to a portion of the creek 
which proved to have a bad crossing. The banks 
were steep and the water deep. My horse got 
down, and so did I. 

That night, tired, wet and hungry, the first Pres- 
byterian minister — and so far as I know the first 

66 



MY FIRST TRIP 

minister — rode into the little place called Animas 
City, near where the nourishing town of Durango 
now stands. 

After a night's rest and a warm breakfast I con- 
cluded, before visiting the people, to try to find 
someone who would either shave me or loan me a 
razor. Among the log cabins was one larger than 
the others, with the familiar sign over the door, 
"Saloon." As I drew near that public place of 
various kinds of business, I asked a man if he knew 
where I could get shaved. "Yes," said he, "you 
can get shaved in a little room in the back end of 
that saloon." I walked in and on through to the 
little room and, sure enough, there was an intended 
barber's chair — a box upon a box, with a board 
nailed to it at about the right slant for a barber's 
chair. In front of this fix-up was a glass, some 
bottles, and a few razors. The room was chiefly 
used for another purpose. 

Four men were playing "poker." The room 
being about eight by ten feet, we were a little 
crowded for space; but that was the least of my 
troubles. When I looked at the man who did the 
shaving I confess that, if the four better-looking 
men who were gambling had not been in the room, 
he would not have shaved me. If whisky ever 
67 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

blossomed in full, it was on that man's face. He 
apologized for his looks by saying- that he was "just 
recovering from a very severe attack of erysipelas. ' ' 
Did it not sound harsh, I should say, from a very 
severe spell of the "jimjams." His razor was dull 
and his hand quite unsteady. Finally he finished a 
twenty-five cent job of scraping. I paid the bill, 
told the crowd there would be preaching somewhere 
in town that evening, invited all to come and 
walked out. That night I preached to a fair-sized 
audience and secured signers to a petition for a 
church organization. 

By referring to my "Pastor's Register," I see that 
my text was Ephesians 2: 8; subject, "Grace"; 
date, July 10, 1877. When I think of that trip as I 
write this chapter, it seems to me the subject should 
have been "Grace and Grit." 

The next day I bought a beautiful "red-tanned" 
black-tail deer skin from a Navajo Indian for one 
dollar. The skin made me a pair of fine leggings. 

When I reached home after my first trip into the 
Animas country, having ridden nearly two hundred 
miles over as rough trails as ever I saw, I was 
tired; but home missionaries- in those days, who 
preached on the frontier, had to "tire and tire 
again. ' ' 

68 



CHAPTER X 



HELL S ACRE 



"The whole universe of God will crumble to pieces before 
God will overlook or despise one single tear of genuine repent- 
ance." —Judge Mc Williams. 



"I want to keep alive my head in my heart." — Doddridge. 

From what has been written regarding mining- 
camps many have concluded that, in the early days 
of a "live camp," when the first great rush is made 
and the excitement over reported "rich strikes" 
and "strikes" that are "rich" runs high, the 
majority of men who go to such camps and are 
carried away by the fever are rough characters. 
This is not the case. The majority are intelligent, 
enterprising and plucky; many are cultured, "trav- 
eled men," who have seen much of life and are in 
the habit of doing their own thinking. 

Mr. Josiah Copley, after visiting several of the 
mountain towns in southwestern Colorado, wrote 
the "Presbyterian Banner": "I have found in those 
towns much intellectual force and bold iniquity." 
From this we see the impression made on the mind 
69 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

of an intelligent man like Mr. Copley, whose home 
for more than fifty years had been in Pittsburg, Pa. 

True, there are many "hard cases" in our mining- 
camps; and while in the San Juan I was often 
reminded of what a Dutchman said to one of them : 
"You get off from mine house, or you give dis name 
a bad blace. " In Lake City that class lived near 
Henson Creek. This part of the camp was well 
named "Hell's Acre," for the first part of the name 
was about all that was ever raised on that acre. 

There was always a sad thought in my mind con- 
nected with this portion of our camp ; i. e. , that so 
many young men who had been well trained in east- 
ern homes would visit the dance-halls to see some- 
thing of "wild life" in a frontier mining-camp during 
its palmy days. One Sabbath night, after preaching, 
I went to my little shanty, eight by ten feet on the 
outside — one side six feet high, the other eight, with 
the fireplace built outside that I might have more 
room on the inside ; my bed being made of "Colorado 
feathers" (shavings), — when, to my astonishment, 
I found that the shanty had been broken into. A 
shirt, a coat and a valise that had been left in my 
care, containing valuable mining papers and family 
pictures, had been stolen. I was surprised that any 
one would dare to steal in a new mining-camp, for 
70 



"HELL'S ACRE" 

the culprit, if caught, would most likely receive such 
punishment that no more would be needed in this 
world. 

The one thing to do was to try to recover the 
stolen goods, especially what had been left with me 
for safe -keeping. I first placed in my pocket what 
a colored pastor rebuked a member of his church for 
carrying and received the following answer : "Don't 
the Scriptures say, 'Be 5 7 e always ready'?" Then I 
went to "Larry" Dolan's gambling-halLand found 
the officer I preferred to help me find the thief. 
From there we went through the halls of like char- 
acter; then started for "Hell's Acre." In the first 
large dance-hall we entered I saw a number of 
young men dancing who had been in my congrega- 
tion not more than two hours before. In the last 
hall we entered a woman known in camp by a name 
that would hardly sound euphonious, told me that a 
"carpet bagger" had just left the hall with a coat 
oyer his arm and a valise in his hand. As the 
officer and myself stepped out of the door one of the 
bar-tenders shot a man in the neck. We failed to 
find the thief, but the next day the valise and papers 
were discovered. 

Often during those years I was reminded of the 
truths taught in the seventh chapter of Proverbs : 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

"Her house is the way to hell, going down to the 
chambers of death." Many young men from good 
homes in the East seemed to forget, or at least 
neglect, the instructions given them when they left 
the fireside. 

A PICTURE 

At first, letters were written to loved ones "back 
home." They were filled with descriptions of what 
the young man saw and, underneath it all, in lines 
that were plain, the mother thought that she discov- 
ered a desire in her boy to return home, and said : 
"He is homesick." But months pass, and in our 
imagination we look into that old home nestling 
among the eastern hills, for we are anxious to learn 
what the mother now thinks of her boy. She says 
that of late he has not written so often as he did at 
first; his letters are much shorter; he complains of 
being so busy. The tears of sorrow that very many 
sons are daily bringing to mothers' eyes are not 
seen; still the pale, careworn look and the heart- 
sickening smile that is forced to that worried 
mother's face, tell plainly the thoughts that are in 
her mind and the struggle that is going on in her 
heart; and what is still plainer, her words, not of 
regret, but of what borders on joy (while speaking 
of a son she buried ere the flush of manhood 
72 



"HELL'S ACRE" 

mantled his cheeks), tell the sad tale of a wander- 
ing boy. 

To leave that home and go where we can get a 
sight of that young man who is breaking his 
mother's heart; to learn what he is doing, and 
how he looks, is a task that can be accomplished by 
visiting any "live" mining-camp. How many 
young men, and men that are in middle life, drink 
that which poisons, intoxicates and ruins! They 
turn their feet toward her house, whose feet the wise 
man said "take told on hell." 

Of the two sorrows that can come to the heart of 
a mother, the death of a son, or the going away of a 
son into the paths of sin and folly, the latter is by 
far the hardest to bear. A profligate son is a much 
heavier burden than a dead son. One can be 
buried, and if he has been a true son, his memory 
will be cherished. But if a son is a living sorrow, 
oh! how intense the anguish of a mother's heart as 
she follows him by prayers through the sinks of 
iniquity! One of the most touching lines I ever 
read was published in a paper at the request of a 
heart-broken mother — short, but oh ! the depths of 
love it contained: 

"Willie, come home." 

May God help the young men who read this book to 

73 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

live such pure lives that no one will have just cause 
to feel ashamed of them. 

While there is nothing more shocking to behold 
than the wreck of a dissolute man (unless it be that 
of a dissolute woman), yet no Christian has a right 
to shun a prodigal when the wanderer is looking for 
a kind word or a helping hand. While he is in a 
deplorable condition, our prayers should ascend for 
the salvation of the perishing. 

"I saw a vessel which the waves did spare, 
Lie sadly stranded on a sandy beach 
Beyond the tide's kind reach; 
Within its murmur of lamenting speech 
Long lay she there ; 
Until at length 

A mighty sea arose in all its strength, 
And launched her lovingly, 
And thus, alas ! our race 
Lay stranded on the beach of human sin 
And misery, 

Beyond all help, until God's 
Gracious grace — 
A mighty tide 
All crimson dyed — 
Swept grandly in 
And set us free. ' ' 

It matters not how high upon the shore the young 
man's frail bark may have been cast by the waves 

74 



"HELL'S ACRE" 

of temptation; if it be not broken in pieces, it is our 
duty to try to launch it lovingly once more on the 
sea of life and, by giving him good advice and a 
helping hand, induce him to steer his shattered craft 
by the compass of true manhood, virtue and godli- 
ness, bidding him look to God, who "knoweth our 
frame" and "remembereth that we are dust"; to 
Him who knoweth the many temptations to which 
young men are subject. 

"There's a fulness in God's mercy 
Like the fulness of the sea; 
There's a kindness in his justice, 
Which is more* than liberty. 

"There's no place where earthly sorrows 
Are more felt than up in Heaven ; 
There's no place where earthly failings 
Have such kindly judgment given. ' ' 

Young men lead fast lives — then write letters 
home, believing they can convince their parents 
that they are living aright. But they are mistaken. 
For Satan writes a legible hand and he writes 
between the lines of their letters. Young men, 
remember that each day you are sowing seed that 
will bear fruit, and, "Whatsoever a man soweth, 
that shall he also reap." 

75 



CHAPTER XI 



KILLED BY A SNOW-SLIDE 



"The story of human life, with its lights and shadows, its 
strength and weakness, will be an interesting story so long as 
the human race shall endure. " — Henry Vincent. 

My "Pastor's Register" reveals a hard roll: 
"George Elwood, saloon-keeper, killed;" "Luther 
Ray, murdered in a gambling-hall;" "Charles C. 
Curtis, killed by a snow-slide while in his cabin;" 
"Alfred Shepherd, died from exposure in storm;" 
"Harry Pierce, killed by a premature blast in the 
Ula mine;" "John Furgerson, killed by a land- 
slide;" and so it reads until I come to "Jackson 
Gregory and Newton N. Lytle, killed by a snow- 
slide near the old ' Dolly Varden Trail, ' on Engineer 
Mountain." 

To show the spirit that prevailed among men 
during the early days of the "Great San Juan 
Excitement, ' ' I will describe the way in which they 
acted. As soon as news reached camp that Jackson 
Gregory and Newton N. Lytle had been buried in a 
snow-slide, there was no lack of volunteers who 
offered to dig them out. Whenever a man volun- 
teered his services for this kind of work he knew 
76 





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3fr« 


J* ... 

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BRINGING INTO CAMP THE BODIES OF TWO MEN WHO WERE 
KILLED BY A SNOW SLIDE. 




RIVER SIDE SNOW TUNNEL, NEAR OURAY, COLO. 
450 FT. LONG IN MID-SUMMER. 

(This is the celebrated Mears Toll Road. The slide came down in the Winter 
and an immense Tunnel. 4^0 ft. long, large enough for six horse stage, was dug 
through it. The snow did not melt all Summer. This is the end of the Tunnel 
nearest Ouray.) 



KILLED BY A SNOW-SLIDE 

what it meant; for in a snow-slide region one 
avalanche is likely to start another. The proof of 
this statement was given while the men were work- 
ing to get the bodies. Shortly after they com- 
menced, a much larger snow-slide, coming from a 
greater height, was heard thundering and crashing 
down the mountain-side near the track of the 
previous one. Every cheek blanched, and every 
heart beat fast as the slide came with almost light- 
ning speed down from its lofty bed — and had it not 
struck a spur of the mountain that changed its 
course, the number of bodies would have increased 
from two to thirty-two, which the next set of 
volunteers would have ventured to uncover. 

Mr. Gregory was not covered more than eighteen 
inches ; his right arm was above his head, and his 
face toward the mountain ; but having been carried 
so far, the snow was tightly packed, and death by 
suffocation must have soon followed. Mr. Lytle 
was covered by four or five feet of snow ; neither 
body was bruised. 

It was a weird and strangely solemn funeral. 
Both bodies were placed side by side in the little 
log cabin where Mr. Gregory's family lived, near 
"timber line." A babe at the mother's breast and 
seven other children like steps (so near of an age), 

77 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

all gathered around the remains of their father. 
(Lytle was a bachelor.) Brave men wept as they 
looked down on the faces of their departed brother 
miners, and into the face of that widow, and those 
of her children. You may depend upon it that 
neither the distance up the mountain side to that 
cabin home, now desolate, nor the long winter 
caused those hardy men to forget the needs of the 
bereaved family. 

Having been gone from home two days, and hav- 
ing seen enough to touch a man's heart to its lowest 
depths, my own home and the loved ones seemed 
doubly dear. While the men who went to the front 
as home missionaries, in the early days of church 
work amid the rugged mountains of Colorado, saw 
much that touched their hearts and tried their 
nerves, they also saw things which convinced them 
that the hearts of true men often beat under a 
rough exterior. If you want to know a man 
through and through, put him where he will have 
to face the music or show the white feather. 

It is wonderful how strong the attachments 
become between men of opposite tastes, different 
habits and education — differing as widely as is 
conceivable — when their danger is one, and all 
realize, and face it like men. 

78 



CHAPTER XII 



AN OLD LADY S PRAYERS 



"There is a peculiar beauty about godly old age — the beauty 
of holiness. ' ' — A lexander Smith. 

While calling to mind past experiences, when 
dangers have gathered around us, we sometimes 
wonder how we escaped with our lives. We may say 
that God's everlasting arms were underneath and 
around us; yet after all we are convinced that there 
is a hidden mystery about it. Many could in truth 
trace their escape from death to the "effectual 
fervent prayers" of some "righteous man" or 
woman. 

In all my varied experience I never had my heart 
so touched as it was by the recital (one year after 
that terrible trip to Silverton with "Gus" Talbot, 
the mail-carrier) of an old lady concerning her deep 
anxiety and all-night and all-day prayer for my 
safety. She was a quiet, unassuming, God-fearing 
woman, not easily approached, said little to any 
one and seldom went anywhere except to church. 

I was making pastoral calls and had been in her 
79 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

home but a short time, when tears came to her eyes 
as, with quivering lips, she asked : "'Do you remem- 
ber the terrible snow-storm that swept over this San 
Juan country about a year ago?" I replied I had 
good reasons for remembering it. "So have I," 
said she. "You know you gave notice in church 
that you would be absent the next Sabbath ; that you 
were going to Silverton to preach and intended to 
organize a church. I saw you ride by and knew 
you expected to go as far as Burrows Park with your 
horse and then snow-shoe it over the range. You 
know I was the first white woman in all this region 
and, having lived several years among these moun- 
tains, I can tell by the way the clouds hang round 
the high peaks when there is going to be one of 
those terrible storms; and I knew by the way the 
clouds were gathering that before you reached 
Silverton the storm would overtake you. I knew 
your disposition so well, and from what I have often 
heard about you, I knew you would either get to 
Silverton or die on the range. So when night came 
on, and, with the darkness, that terrible storm, I 
prayed for you all that night and all the next day ; 
for the storm still raged, and I knew you were in it 
somewhere on the range. ' ' 

So soon as I could control my feelings sufficiently 



AN OLD LADY'S PRAYERS 

to speak without showing what some men call weak- 
ness — but I do not, for the man above all men 
"wept" — I said: "Now I know why I lived through 
that fearful storm. ' ' 

The summit of the lofty ranges is where the 
"Storm King" gathers his strength that he may 
sweep down the rugged mountain sides; and woe 
betide the traveler who is caught in his arms when 
the darkness of night as well as the fury of the 
storm is doubled ! No wonder the trees at timber 
line are twisted and their limbs bent, while they 
hug the rocks almost like a living thing. 

Every severe storm in which I have been has 
made a lasting impression on my mind ; and when 
muscular rheumatism gets hold of me, I am con- 
vinced that those storms have left a deep and lasting 
impression on my body. It also reminds me of the 
fact that frontier work, like other kinds of work, 
has its price. You do the labor and take your pay. 
Yet, after all, lives there a minister who, looking 
back and recalling his struggles and hardships on 
the frontier in the Master's cause, regrets one hour 
of suffering, one hardship, one danger, or one dollar 
given to the work? Verily no! Their only sorrow 
is that they were not able to do more and give 
more for Him who gave all and suffered more than 
81 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

tongue can tell, that they might live eternally with 
Him. 

The following is a sample of what I find recorded 
in my "Pastor's Register," under the head of "Regis- 
ter of Funerals": "Donald Robertson, age thirty- 
five; residence, Capitol, Colorado; place of burial, 
Lake City; date of burial, November 24, 1879. 
Lost on the range at the head of Henson Creek; 
caught in a storm at night; fell about twenty-five 
feet; froze to death. " What intense mental suffer- 
ing that man endured ! What longings for the morn- 
ing dawn ! What weary wanderings hour after hour ! 
Only those who have been on the summit of some 
lofty range of mountains in a storm at night will 
ever know. 

Like the grand old ocean, when a calm is on her 
face, she looks so harmless, so quiet — yea, restful — so 
do our grand old mountains look beautiful, bold and 
harmless. But when the "Storm King" strikes 
them, their faces change and they are the opposite 
of restful. They fill the hearts of men with terror. 



%2 



CHAPTER XIII 



AN IRREPRESSIBLE BOY 



"Many a splendid genius was the despair of a good father 
when young. But all of a sudden he awoke and went into 
action like a soldier into battle, and made a name that will live 
forever." — Rev. Day K. Lee. 

Next to the boy who teased the bald-headed man 
until he gave him twenty-five cents to keep still, and 
then called it his "bald-headed quarter," Lake City 
could boast of having the hardest. He was about 
seven years old. A man who kept a saloon at the 
"upper crossing" of the old "Slumgullion" stage 
road, on the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, died, 
and I was asked to officiate at his funeral. 

The procession was rather short for a mining- 
camp. If the religion of a certain class of miners 
ever shows itself, it is at funerals; not, however, 
for the same reason given by a stingy man — that 
"the sermon be just as solemn and there is no collec- 
tion taken" — but to show sympathy. 

There were only two wagons — one with the 
coffin, the widow and driver (the pall-bearers 
walked) ; the other a light spring wagon with a 
83 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

driver and the preacher. When passing through 
camp this irrepressible boy decided to join the pro- 
cession. After walking a short distance he asked to 
ride. 

All went well until we arrived at the cemetery. 
A miscalculation had been made as to the time 
required to do the work of digging the grave. On 
account of the stones more time was lost than the 
grave-digger had made allowance for. When we 
reached the cemetery the grave was about half dug. 
While talking to the widow the irrepressible boy 
stepped up to me and asked: "When are you going 
to put that man in the hole?" Knowing the perse- 
verance of the boy, I invited him to take a walk 
around the place to see where a "washee man" was 
buried. At the Chinaman's grave the boy pulled 
his hand out of mine and left me. Soon he began 
throwing pieces of dirt at the men who were at 
work. A man who had walked to the cemetery (not 
a pall-bearer) slapped the boy, which caused con- 
siderable excitement, for one of the pall-bearers, a 
friend of the boy's father, proposed to "take it up." 

When I returned to the little group at the grave 

the boy was crying bitterly. He being the cause of 

the trouble, I took hold of his hand, and said: 

"Come with me"; then he yelled, "Say, when are 

84 



AN IRREPRESSIBLE BOY 

you going to put that man in the hole?" The little 
rascal was determined to see that man "put in the 

hole." 

who's next ? 

It was evident that some of the men in our camp 
were determined to be bad; others were reckless 
while seeking the gold that perisheth with the using, 
yet all seemed sympathetic. I never saw the time 
when it was difficult to get pall-bearers for "one of 
the boys" in a "live" mining-camp. It was consid- 
ered a post of honor. But realizing as I did that 
unless a higher value was placed on human life 
some of the "gangs" living in our camp would soon 
be "gone over the range" for the last time, I made 
up my mind that if there was any scare in the 
"boys" I would bring it out. Being asked to 
preach a funeral sermon (no ten-minute talk would 
satisfy that crowd), I was forcibly reminded of the 
fact that one "gang" would soon need a new set of 
pall-bearers. By referring to my "Pastor's Register," 
I saw this was the fourth out of the six original 
stand-bys for that crowd. The one just killed was 
particularly well-liked by his associates, and a young 
man in whom I had been greatly interested. 

When about the middle of my sermon, after giv- 
ing dates of the death of each, and showing that 
85 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

they were unpleasantly near together, and having 
mentioned the fact that but two of the original six 
were left, I stopped for a moment, stepped toward 
the pall-bearers, and shouted, "Who's next?" 
Afterwards one of the men said, "It made me think 
for a while, for it startled me. " 



86 



CHAPTER XIV 

GOOD IMPRESSIONS MADE BY WALKING THROUGH 
DEEP SNOW 

"A Christian is like a locomotive. A fire must be kindled 
in the heart of the thing before it will go. ' ' 

—M. IV. Jacobus, D. D. 

Before a minister can be made instrumental in 
reaching godless men they must first be convinced 
that he is in earnest, not only in what he says, but 
in all he does. All men place a value on earnest- 
ness; the majority consider eloquence, unaccom- 
panied by sincerity, below par. 

For several months I had been preaching every 
Sabbath afternoon at one of the great mines four 
miles from camp. One Sabbath morning warm 
friends and careful officers said: "Mr. Darley, we 
hope you won't walk to the mine to-day." Over 
eighteen inches of snow had fallen, and the wind 
was blowing. I replied: "I must not miss my 
appointment." After a hearty dinner I changed 
my pulpit suit for one adapted to mountain trips 
and put on boots to match. 

It took nearly three hours to walk to the mine. 
87 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

The road was up grade all the way and in many- 
places the snow was waist-deep. Only one man was 
in the large room where services were held. He 
looked surprised, and said : ' ' We did not expect you 
to-day." He started to the "bunk houses," and 
soon the men came wallowing through the snow. 
Although tired, it was a treat for me to see the 
earnest look of inquiry on those stern, weather- 
beaten, manly faces. 

Afterwards the superintendent told me my walk- 
ing to the mine that Sabbath did great good. The 
men said: "That preacher must be in earnest, or he 
would not have walked up here after such a storm. ' ' 

Rev. Charles Simeon kept the picture of Henry 
Martyn in his study. Move where he would through 
the apartment, it seemed to keep its eyes upon him 
and ever say to him: "Be earnest, be earnest, don't 
trifle. ' ' The great Simeon would gently bow to the 
picture and, with a smile, reply: "Yes, I will be 
earnest, I will, I will be in earnest, I will not trifle, 
for souls are perishing and Jesus is to be glorified." 
Oh, Christian! look away to Martyn's Master, to 
Simeon's Savior, to the Omniscient One, and be in 
earnest. 

Earnest men may make mistakes by being a little 
too enthusiastic ; but their good work will far more 



GOOD IMPRESSIONS 

than overbalance their mistakes. While the man 
lacking in earnestness may be cautious, he will 
come as near being useless as it is possible for a 
human being to be. 



89 



CHAPTER XV 

ROUGH EXPERIENCE OF A MISSIONARY'S WIFE AND 
CHILDREN 

"His warm but simple home, where he enjoys with her who 
shares his pleasure and his heart, sweet converse." — Cowper. 

"When Mr. Disraeli retired from the Premiership, he was 
offered a place among the hereditary aristocracy with the title 
of Earl. He declined it with the intimation that, if there was 
any reward thought to be deserved, he wished it to be con- 
ferred upon his wife, to whom he attributed all his success." 

The snow fell to an unusual depth all through the 
San Juan country early in the fall of 1879. All who 
were unable to cross the range and spend the winter 
in "God's Country," or the "United States," as the 
outside world was called, knew that the fall, winter 
and spring months would drag heavily; but having 
made up our minds to face the difficulty, every one 
seemed hopeful, and all were determined to make 
the best of our surroundings and enjoy life to the 
fullest. Those who danced, danced to their heart's 
content. Those who were especially fond of playing 
cards whiled away many long hours at the card table ; 
while others enjoyed themselves coasting and snow- 
shoeing. When Sabbath came the majority went to 
90 



A ROUGH EXPERIENCE 

church. The greater part of the winter we did 
without luxuries, and at times the things necessary 
to be reasonably comfortable were scarce; yet no 
one suffered. While pastor of "The First Avenue 
Presbyterian Church," in Denver, Mr. Spaulding, 
who kept a store in the camp in '79, told me that in 
the winter he sold every pound of apples or fruit of 
any kind he could get at sixty cents a pound. Every- 
thing else that was eatable brought a high price. 

Mrs. Darley thought it would be wise, if it became 
possible, to get out of the camp with the children — 
two boys, one eight years of age, the other seven, 
and a daughter one year old. When March came it 
was considered safe to go with a sleigh by what was 
known as the "Indian Creek and Cochetopa Pass 
route." The distance to the end of the railroad 
was greater than that of the other stage routes, but 
it was the only way to get out of the San Juan, the 
other routes being impassable. We knew that 
something like one hundred and seventy-five miles 
through the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the 
greater part of the distance in an open sleigh, at 
that season of the year, was not a pleasant under- 
taking for a woman with three young children, 
especially when the snow was deep on the ranges. 

But the pioneers of the San Juan took chances 
91 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

and traveled when and where they would not now 
care to travel in an open sleigh. After several con- 
sultations with the stage agent and drivers, it was 
decided that if the prospects for clear weather con- 
tinued the attempt would be made to get out. The 
morning Mrs. Darley and the children started was 
clear, but cold. All went well during the day and the 
different stations were made on time. At one of 
them a man was taken aboard who had a flask of 
whisky with which to keep warm. The driver drank 
a little now and then. In the evening both of them 
were feeling jolly. As night came on the party 
began the ascent of the pass. The snow was deep 
and in places the road was dangerous. The horses, 
however, were used to the route and kept their feet, 
though in portions of the road there was much ice. 
Mrs. Darley felt that the best thing to do was to 
keep the children well wrapped in robes and 
blankets. About the hour of midnight the top of 
the pass was reached and, by this time, the driver 
and the man in the boot with him were sound 
asleep. The horses were keeping the road them- 
selves without any assistance from the driver. 
Finally a sidling place was reached, and being icy 
the horses selected the best of the road and allowed 
the sleigh to run to one side. The result was an 
92 



A ROUGH EXPERIENCE 

upset, at which the horses ran away. All the party 
had been thrown down the mountain side. The 
driver had his right foot badly cut, but started after 
the horses. Mrs. Darley, mother-like, had clasped 
her babe in her arms still closer when thrown. 
Unfortunately, she struck her face and left shoulder 
against a projecting rock, cutting her face in several 
places, causing the blood to flow freely, and severely 
bruising her left shoulder. Soon she discovered 
that she was the only one injured. But the younger 
boy was nowhere to be found, and the thought 
came that he was still in the bottom of the sleigh. 
He was found, however, sound asleep on the moun- 
tain side, rolled up in a lot of blankets. The dis- 
turbance had not bothered him in the least. The 
man who was with the driver being too drunk to 
render any help, the boys began digging in the 
snow with their hands and feet near some scrub 
pines (it being at timber line), hoping to find some 
dry branches with which to make a fire. They suc- 
ceeded in getting a few, but the man with them was 
unable to produce a match. The situation was 
serious. The snow was too deep for walking, and 
the nearest station was three miles away. The 
party would have suffered greatly had it not been 
for soldiers of the regular army. They had a post 
93 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

about one mile from the summit of the pass. As 
the horses • ran by it a guard saw them and awoke 
the captain in command, who, with a number of 
soldiers, started to see what was the trouble. Soon 
they saw baby clothes in the snow, which caused 
them to quicken their steps. The trunk had been 
carried some distance by the horses before they 
broke away from the sleigh. Finally the soldiers 
found Mrs. Darley and the children and offered to 
take them to a place of shelter. One of the soldiers 
took the babe in his arms and started. Mrs. Darley 
discovered that some of the troops were colored men, 
and asked who they were, and where they were tak- 
ing her and the children. Then the captain raised 
the lantern he was carrying and showed his shoulder 
straps, at the same time remarking that he was an 
officer in the regular army. Mrs. Darley knew that 
she and the children were safe with United States 
troops. When camp was reached they washed the 
blood from Mrs. Darley 's face and did all they could to 
make her and the children comfortable. Mrs. Darley 
thinks the name of the captain was Allen. The next 
day the party were taken to Saguache, and the even- 
ing of the following day reached Del Norte on the Rio 
Grande River ; then staged it thirty miles to Alamosa, 
the terminus of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. 

94 



CHAPTER XVI 



MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING 



"One of the inhabitants of the rock-bound and sea-girt isle 
of St. Kilda, visiting the outside world, was asked if he had 
ever heard of God in St. Kilda. "Oh!" was the reply; "you 
in your fertile home may forget God; but a St. Kilda man 
never can. Elevated on his rock, suspended over a precipice, 
tossed on the wild ocean, he never can forget his God; he 
hangs continually on his arm." — Selected. 

The following' poem was written by Rev. Philip 
Bevan, D. D., after hearing of the hard trip made 
across Engineer Mountain in 1877 by Rev. Sheldon 
Jackson, D. D., and the author of this book. While 
at the General Assembly, in 1897, Dr. Jackson told 
me he would write this trip up and have it illus- 
trated : 

"Stranger: 

'Up the rugged hills ascending, 
Whither are those pilgrims wending? 
Through the horrid gulches steering, 
In the caverns disappearing, 
Farther, higher, still they climb — 
Will they scale that peak sublime? 
Hurrying 'mid the waste of snows, 
Will they court unbidden woes? 
Would they mark the sun arise 
95 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Beaming through unclouded skies? 
Surely these some vow would pay- 
Reverent to the orb of day, 
Or they trace the eagle's flight 
As he sweeps from height to height. 
Ah, they fall! they downward glide, 
On the avalanche they ride, 
By the icy monster borne 
Through the rocks and forests torn. 
Prostrate in the canyon deep 
Are they buried? Do they sleep? 
Craving gold with latest breath, 
Have they found, but grasped in death? 
No ! they rise and shout aloud, 
Answering through the snowy cloud.' 

"Herald: 

' Stranger ! Not with lust of gold 
Have we scaled these ranges bold; 
Not to rob the eagle's nest 
Have we crossed yon snowy crest; 
Not to hail the glowing sun 
We the icy peaks have won ; 
Not to delve in glittering ore 
We this wilderness explore , 
Not to gain earth's wealth, but show 
Richer mines than mortal know. 
Higher than the eagle's height, 
Teach we man a heavenward flight ; 
Bring the lamp of life divine 
96 



MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING 

O'er his darkened soul to shine; 
Teach his tongue to pay his vows 
Anthemed in God's holy house; 
Make the rugged waste afford 
Praise and gladness to our Lord ; 
While each sheltered vale shall rise 
Like a blooming paradise.' " 



97 



CHAPTER XVII 

COMICAL SCENES IN CHURCH 

"Men are usually tempted by the devil, but an idle man pos- 
itively tempts the devil." — Spanish Proverb. 

We had one lazy citizen, who lived near "Hell's 
Acre, ' ' whom I did not love ; but after he fell and 
broke his neck then I wished I had loved his soul 
and done my full duty toward reclaiming him. He 
owned what he called an "express wagon" — others 
called it by various names; the horse and harness 
looked as much like that for which they were 
intended as did the wagon — and with this "outfit" 
he did hauling. A member of our choir employed 
said expressman to haul him a load of sawdust. 
The sawdust was to have been hauled on Saturday 
(at least, so said the man in the choir) ; but the 
expressman did not so understand. He sent his boy 
into the church for the purpose of asking Mr. Pay- 
ton "where he wanted that sawdust put." I was 
reading the Scriptures when I heard an unusual 
noise ; looking up, I saw the boy coming down the 
aisle. What a sight! Man's boots on, clothes that 
fitted him like the darky's shirt — "did not touch him 

qS 



COMICAL SCENES IN CHURCH 

anywhere" — hair on end, and as dirty as boys 
generally get. When near the pulpit he yelled at 
me as though I were deaf : "Say! is Payt on inhere?" 
I turned my eyes toward "choir corner," and the 
boy's eyes soon rested on the man who had ordered 
the sawdust. Then he cried: "Say, Payton! father 
wants to know where you want that sawdust put. ' ' 
I kept on reading, but the urchin was the center of 
attraction. Elder D. A. McConnell, who sat near 
the boy, touched his arm and said: "Keep still, you 
are in church." The urchin answered, "Hey?" 
The boy's supreme innocence was more than the 
congregation could stand ; his reply caused the pas- 
tor and people to lose their dignity for a moment. 

We had some of the most dignified men in that 
church I have ever known; men whose sense of 
propriety was very keen. Anything savoring of 
impropriety was frowned upon, particularly by an 
officer from New Jersey. His whole life was pre- 
cise, and with his preciseness was mingled a kindly 
charity for others and a generosity that was 
refreshing. But terrier dogs and tomcats have but 
little dignity, and occasionally just as little sense of 
what is proper in the sanctuary. On a Sabbath 
evening one of each kind visited the church and, for 
some unaccountable reason, both walked into "choir 
99 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

corner." Very soon the truth of those familiar 
words, " 'Tis dogs' delight to bark and bite," 
were forcibly brought to mind, for the terrier dog 
and the tomcat were soon at it. Such a racket 
was never before heard in "choir corner. " Down 
the aisle came a faithful elder and our proper New 
Jersey man after the combatants. Both men quickly 
realized that they had a job on their hands, but, 
being Presbyterians and believing in the persever- 
ance of the saints, they captured dog and cat ; yet 
not until services had been suspended. It was 
amusing to see the dignified way in which our 
proper man carried that cat and what a determined 
walk the elder had. The cat was held by the nape 
of the neck, the dog in arms. I was told that the 
cat was thrown across the street. Thus ended the 
row in "choir corner." Since then I have often 
wished that all rows in "choir corner" might be 
ended in as short order, if not in the same way. 
Choirs are a great blessing when they are what they 
ought to be — a help in every good work ; but if they 
become what they were never intended to be — a 
cause of disturbance in the church — then thrice 
happy is that church where no choir is. 

A black-tailed deer in church is something 
unusual, even in a "live" mining-camp. Men who 



COMICAL SCENES IN CHURCH 

have had much experience with deer know they are 
easily tamed and, if permitted, will follow their 
owners. In the early days of the San Juan excite- 
ment deer were plentiful, and still are in portions of 
the same country, although the "steam horse" has 
taken the place of the freight-wagon and burro pack 
train. A man living in camp had shot a doe and 
captured the fawn belonging to her. He kept the 
deer until it had grown quite large and let it run 
about the town. No dog could get the best of it. 
A big buck deer with great horns is not easily 
handled. Finally the deer went away and no one 
knew what had become of it. Many expressed 
themselves as being pleased that it had gone, for 
they were afraid of the animal. The deer was 
inclined to be ugly. One Sabbath evening, after the 
congregation had gathered and I was sitting behind 
the pulpit waiting for the ringing of the second bell, 
this large deer walked into the church and half-way 
down the aisle, seemingly pleased with the lights 
and the fright he was giving the ladies. He turned 
round, walked out, and went back to the hills with- 
out waiting for collection or sermon. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CROSSING SWOLLEN MOUNTAIN STREAMS 

"It is remarkable with what Christian fortitude and resigna- 
tion we can bear the sufferings of other folks." — Dean Swift. 

It is a good thing to look up, and very necessary 
when crossing a swollen stream. 

It matters not how strong a swimmer your horse 
may be, you must not forget your danger and the 
folly of locking into the stream. . Swiftly running 
water will make most men dizzy and cause them to 
fall out of the saddle unless they look up. 

In June, '77, in company with H. C. James, M.D., 
I started from Ouray to cross the Ute Indian 
Reservation, a distance of one hundred and twenty- 
five miles. The weather being pleasant and our 
horses fresh, we thought that by taking the old 
"Cimarron Cut-off Trail," we could ride through in 
two days, if we went without blankets or extra load. 
One night out without blankets would do no hurt ; 
and although cool in the mountains at night we 
could build a fire and be quite comfortable. Some 
business matters detained my companion, so we did 
not leave Ouray until 2 p. m. We hoped to reach 



CROSSING MOUNTAIN STREAMS 

the home of the head chief of the Utes that night ; 
failing to travel that distance we would stop with 
the agent. On reaching Cow Creek, about sundown, 
we found that we had more than we bargained for. 
The stream was high and rushing onward with all 
the strength and fury the melting snows could give 
it, so broad and deep that it made a river. The 
doctor had a fine American horse. I had a 
"bronco"; he was wiry, but light-weight. 

We would not go back and we hardly dared go 
forward ; but, having only a lunch in our pockets, we 
must decide. Finally we resolved to cross the 
stream. The doctor was an experienced hand at 
the business, and the preacher had tried it often 
enough to know that there was nothing particularly 
pleasing about it. The doctor kept his horse's 
head turned up stream until the swiftest water was 
reached and so crossed without great difficulty ; but 
I fared differently owing to the lightness of my horse. 
He struggled hard, but his head turned down 
stream and we were swept back to the bank whence 
we started. After resting, the second attempt was 
made with like result and the third and fourth were 
also failures. By this time my horse was tired and 
the doctor was urging me not to try it again. But 
being wet, and night coming on, I was determined 
103 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

to risk crossing once more. After another breath- 
ing-spell I concluded to try higher up, where the 
stream was narrower and deeper, hoping to be able 
to get past the center before the head of the horse 
would be turned down stream. My hopes were 
realized. I was truly thankful when safe across. 
We knew that the Uncompahgre River would be 
impassable, so did not attempt to reach the agency. 
We made the best of it for the night and were on 
the trail by four o'clock next morning. 

About noon we came to a branch of the Cimarron 
River. In crossing the doctor almost lost his life 
by looking into the water. He was nearly out of 
the saddle, hanging to the horn and the horse's 
mane. I saw his danger and called, "Look up!" 
which he did, and soon reached his place in the 
saddle. 

One who has not been carried down a swift moun- 
tain stream can scarcely imagine how the water 
affects the head. You feel as though you were 
going at a terrific rate, although your horse may be 
holding his own to a wonderful degree. 

It was but a few miles to the other branch of the 

Cimarron, which was wider, deeper and swifter. 

That same month a young man and his mule were 

drowned while trying to cross this branch. By the 

104 



CROSSING MOUNTAIN STREAMS 

time we reached it we were tired and our stomachs 
were empty. But we must cross, though it was 
dangerous. We breathed easier when over, and, 
having let our horses graze for an hour, struck the 
trail and made Indian Creek that night at ten 
o'clock. We had ridden some sixty miles since 
4 a. m. Next day we arrived at Lake City, glad to 
get home. 

In February, 1890, I rode in a palace car over part 
of that country and found prosperous towns where, 
in '77, the Ute Indians and wild animals had full 
possession. I could hardly realize that such a 
change had taken place and did not regret that I 
had preached the first sermon in all the Uncom- 
pahgre region. 

A Presbyterian minister carried the Gospel to the 
"regions beyond" in that country and, be it said to 
the credit of our Board of Home Missions, they 
showed their appreciation by a generous response to 
all my requests, as did the Board of Church Erec- 
tion. 

On one hard trip, after crossing the Uncompahgre 
River, I found the camp of two trappers — "Oregon 
Bill" and "Happy Jack." The latter was the most 
dime-novel-dressed trapper I ever met. His entire 
suit was made of "red tan" buckskin, fringed with 
105 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

enough Indian trappings to suit the blackest-eyed 
dusky maiden in the Ute tribe. 

I carried a small flask of whisky to use in case of 
an emergency. So, after sitting a while at the 
camp-fire, I drew said flask and began rubbing my 
swollen limbs. Both men looked on, and soon 
"Happy Jack" said: "That is the greatest waste of 
good whisky I ever saw ; why don't you drink the 
whisky and rub your limbs with the flask?" For 
four days and three nights my clothes had been 
soaking wet and part of the time frozen, so that the 
hospitality of the trappers was appreciated. 



106 



CHAPTER XIX 

A HOME MISSION PROBLEM 

"Henry, if each time you do as well as you can, your efforts 
will average about right." 

— Dr. Lyman Beecher to his son Henry. 

Home missionaries who did the hard work on the 
frontier, before the "steam horse" cut the price on 
freights — they who were paying ten dollars per hun- 
dred for flour, thirteen cents a pound for potatoes, 
one dollar a pound for butter and seventy-five 
cents per dozen for eggs — will enjoy the following: 

Under "Rule Three" (in the commissions used 
years ago), for congregations applying for aid to the 
Board of Home Missions, we read: "Congregations 
should steadily aim at self-support as soon as pos- 
sible. ' ' Five years are placed as a reasonable time 
in which to accomplish this. 

It reads well and looks plausible. But let us 
figure on the five-year system as it has worked on a 
great many mission fields ; or probably we should 
say, as it has tried the missionaries who have occu- 
pied them. 

First year, a church is organized; name, "First 
107 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Presbyterian Church. " Nine-tenths of its members 
bring their letters from other denominations. But 
few of them are deeply interested in the future pros- 
perity of the church. Before the church-building is 
completed one shows a disposition to pull one way, 
another another way. Yet dedication day comes. 
The money to pay the remaining indebtedness is 
pledged. Soon after an article appears in one of 
our church papers: "Church Dedicated Free of 
Debt" — "Blue Banner of Presbyterianism Foremost 
in the Fight, Carrying the Gospel to the Regions 
Beyond." Oh, yes! Sounds well. Those who have 
subscribed are called upon. One says, "I will pay," 
but does not; another says, "I thought so and so 
when I subscribed;" another leaves for parts 
unknown. 

The missionary has dedicated a church with a 
debt, which makes him feel very uncomfortable; 
but since there is a kindly feeling existing between 
the people and himself, he says : ' ' No reason to feel 
discouraged. ' ' With zeal for the Lord's cause, and 
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" for his 
motto, he goes to work manfully, with a firm 
determination not to growl, but to right things. 
Application is made to the Home Board for assist- 
ance; but the Board is unable to grant what is 
108 



A HOME MISSION PROBLEM 

asked. The members of his church are unable to 
keep their part of the contract. The missionary, or 
else his wife, has a little money on hand and 
decides to use it rather than leave the field, saying : 
"All will be well in the end ; prospect is good; pull 
through this year, and all will be lovely. ' ' He pulls 
through; feels happy, sends in an encouraging 
report to the Home Board, and asks for less the 
second year than he did the first. 

Possibly the Home Board takes it for granted 
that, since the missionary managed to survive last 
year on less than Presbytery voted him, he can do 
so again. His commission is made out for less than 
is asked, and for less than is necessary to live. He 
receives his commission and, with a heavy heart, 
takes his troubles "to the Lord in prayer"; then 
gets out his expense book. The missionary and his 
wife figure a while, talk matters over and conclude 
that the Lord will provide. The next morning the 
missionary calls on his grocer and tries his level 
best to convince him that everything will be all 
right in time. 

With a little cough and a kindly smile, the gentle- 
man at the store expresses his sincere desire to see 
the church prosper — but, ah! — yes — just so. Prob- 
ably some other missionary has gone home saying : 
109 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

"The faith of man is very weak." To make a long 
story short, he begins trading at another place and, 
when he reads, "Owe no man anything," wonders if 
that refers to the man who is "carrying the Gospel 
to the regions beyond." 

The missionary tries to keep cheerful and chooses 
for his text Sabbath morning: "I have learned, in 
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." 
He preaches his sermon with all the earnestness 
with which his debts have inspired him. At the 
close of the service some good brother takes him by 
the hand, saying: "How your sermon comforted 
me!" And, as a matter of course, the preacher 
adds a few more words of comfort. Yet, in spite of 
his determination to be brave, he becomes pale 
and nervous. Some sympathizing friend remarks: 
"You are overworking yourself; if I were you I 

would take a trip to ," naming some place 

that would take more money to reach than the mis- 
sionary would accumulate in a year, should he live 
on scenery and light air during that time and save 
his salary for the trip. 

But since every cloud has its "silver lining," and 
the darkest day is supposed to have an end, the mis- 
sionary plucks up courage and is purposed never to 
say die. He says: "My debts are many and badly 



A HOME MISSION PROBLEM 

scattered ; this is distressing. How can I remedy the 
evil?" After consulting his wife — that great bless- 
ing to missionaries, for a greater help than a faith- 
ful, uncomplaining wife cannot be found — he decides 
to owe but one man. The banker will in all 
probability loan the money at two per cent a month 
(that was the lowest rate of interest in the San 
Juan; I have paid twice as much). He borrows the 
money and comes within one of owing no man any- 
thing. He is in better spirits; the dark clouds 
appear to be passing away; his year is nearly out 
and everyone says the prospects for the future are 
good. A church meeting is called. The missionary, 
true to his trust, tells the people that it is their duty 
to do all they can to make the church self-support- 
ing. He says: "The Home Board is in debt. Let 
us try to raise more money this year than we did 
last." 

More is pledged (some of the subscriptions would 
be considered by those who take nothing but "gilt- 
edged" paper for security as rather scaly). The 
application for aid is made, sent to the Presbytery, 
voted on, goes to the Home Board — and lo! the 
same shearing process takes place again; not from 
any lack of sympathy on the part of the Board, but 
from necessity, because the church at large fails to 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

furnish the money required to pay living salaries to 
her missionaries. Commission comes to the mis- 
sionary for less than he expects ; the ghost of a note 
is due at the bank ; a kindly, gentlemanly Christian 
request comes from the superintendent of missions 
to take up another outpost and carry the work for- 
ward. All, like an armed force, meet the home 
missionary; and in blank despair he says: "What 
shall I do?" 

If some good soul, who has the time, will please 
figure how a missionary, under these circumstances, 
can make a church, where his congregation is con- 
tinually changing, self-supporting in five years, he 
will greatly oblige many home missionaries. The 
process looks to me a good deal like Paddy's experi- 
ence with his horse — "one straw less each day," 
but when the horse got down to one straw a day it 
died. 



CHAPTER XX 



MINERS AND PROSPECTORS 



"God has put something noble and good into every heart 
which his hand has created." — Mark Twain. 

There is a vast difference between the miner and 
the prospector. Many think these names synony- 
mous, but they are not. They represent two dis- 
tinct classes of men, whose dispositions and lives are 
as varied as it is possible to imagine. A miner is 
one who works in the mines, has a home and labors 
for wages. You are liable to find him in the same 
place month after month. The prospector is one 
who will not work in a mine any longer than it 
takes to earn a "grub stake," or else he gets some 
one to "stake" him. He seldom has a home, but he 
does possess a burro, a prospector's pick and shovel, 
some cooking utensils for camp-life, a few blankets 
and hope and faith enough to supply an ordinary 
church — if it were only hope and faith in heavenly 
things. 

Had I the ability to paint a picture of these two 
graces it would be altogether different from any- 
thing I have ever seen painted to represent them. 
113 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

The picture would be the prospector starting out 
with his burro packed, headed for some "new find." 
Job said: "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and 
a place for the gold where they fine it." A pros- 
pector once corrected me on this passage of Scrip- 
ture by arguing that the word "fine" should be 
"find." A prospector always hopes to find the 
"hidden treasure." He talks of it by day and 
dreams of it by night; the one all-absorbing ques- 
tion that possesses his mind is: "Where can I strike 
it rich?" 

In the seventies there was not much finery nor a 
great attempt at show in dress throughout the San 
Juan ; but there was enough sympathy, good will, 
kind deeds and big-hearted hospitality to fill a state 
and bless the human race. During these years the 
few ministers who went to the front found no palace 
cars in which to ride and seldom a horse to mount. 
Walking was reasonably good and fashionable. 
Miner, prospector, merchant and preacher were 
privileged to walk. 

Often while preaching in the camps where the 
men were mostly prospectors, I have said: "Friends, 
while you are trying to 'strike it rich' on earth, 
remember that there is a richer 'lode' in heaven 
than can be found here. All who 'prospect' for 




PROSPECTOR ON HIS WAY TO A NEW GOLD FIELD. 






^Tl 




PROSPECTOR RETURNING "RUSTED. 



MINERS AND PROSPECTORS 

it, find it; and in addition to finding the 'lode' they 
have great joy in their hearts; and while that 
realized now will not build you a fine mansion here, 
all who find shall at last see that they have built a 
mansion in heaven so grand and fair that the man- 
sions of earth sink into insignificance when com- 
pared to it. 

"Sinner, whether you are a mining sinner or a 
prospecting sinner, do you wish to be 'staked in' on 
this 'lode,' and have your name recorded in the 
Book that our Creator keeps, in which are written 
the names of all who are interested in it? If so, go 
to Christ; tell him you have thus far sought the 
gold and silver that perisheth with the using — the 
'veins' of silver and gold — but now you desire an 
interest in the imperishable riches, and in the fine 
gold of God's mercy, love and goodness; and, above 
all, an interest in the atoning blood of Christ. 

"Will you do this? Will you mine deep in the love 
of God or will you be satisfied with what the earth 
offers, and reject what is offered you by a loving 
Savior — 'the pearl of great price,' 'the one thing 
needful'?" 

Then, as now, it was but one step from the serious 
to the ridiculous. I remember meeting a prospector, 
with whom I was well acquainted, just after he had 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

"made a sale." The amount he had received was 
not large, but to a man who had been "rustling for 
a grub stake" for four or five years it was good. 
Having congratulated him on his success, I said: "I 
hope you are not forgetting the one thing needful. ' ' 
"One thing needful?" said he slowly, then asked: 
"What's that, grub?" 



It6 



CHAPTER XXI 



BUCKSKIN LEGGINGS 



"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive 
to finish the work we have begun." — Lincoln. 

"Were you the man who left a pair of buckskin 
leggings at my cabin on the old Uncompahgre trail 
about twelve years ago?" was the question asked by 
a miner after I had preached the dedicatory sermon 
of the new Presbyterian church at Ouray, on the 23d 
of February, 1890. I replied that I left a pair of 
buckskin leggings, "red tan," in some cabin on that 
trail the last trip I made over the range from Ouray 
to Lake City. He replied: "It was in my cabin 
that you left them. ' ' Some one standing by asked : 
"Have you the leggings now?" 

This conversation was short, but it reminded me of 
a hard trip. Friends had begged me not to attempt 
to cross Engineer Mountain that day — at least not 
without snow-shoes. It was snowing hard in Ouray, 
and all knew that at an altitude of more than thir- 
teen thousand feet above sea-level the snow would 
be several feet deep. When the "Storm King" 
"7 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

awoke he always made it lively for anyone who 
tried to visit him in his home on the high ranges or 
to pass his door. A man looking back over the past 
can see where he made mistakes. By the time I 
had walked eight miles up the trail toward the sum- 
mit of the range, and had reached an altitude of ten 
thousand feet, it was past noon (had started at 5 
a. m.). Coming to a lone cabin, and seeing smoke 
arising from what was intended for a chimney, I 
went to the place of entrance and was invited in. 
Being hungry, after walking through snow that was 
almost waist-deep — for the storm kept increasing, 
and the higher I climbed the deeper became the 
snow — I entered the cabin and gratefully accepted 
an invitation to "have something to eat." My leg- 
gings were wet, so I untied them and placed them 
before the fireplace to dry. 

Dinner over, I started away rather hurriedly, 
because I was aware that the rest of the trip, or at 
least to "Rose's Cabin" — below timber line on the 
Lake City side of the range — would be a hard one, 
and that no time was to be lost ; for if overtaken by 
night and the range not crossed, it would be terrible. 

As I stepped into the snow at the cabin door I 
went in so deep at the first step that I did not miss 
my leggings. Nor did I notice that they were gone 
118 




a w 
o z 



« Z 




BUCKSKIN LEGGINGS 

until my legs began to grow cold ; then I was too far 
away to turn back. In that cabin I left one of the 
best pair of buckskin leggings ever owned by red or 
white man in the old Rockies. 

The wind had increased. The snow was so much 
deeper above timber line, that all I could do was to 
push my way through. A man almost up to his 
arm-pits in snow, climbing up the side of a moun- 
tain with the snow clouds enveloping him, doesn't do 
much walking ; it is more push than walk. At times 
it seemed as though I would never reach the top. 
I could see but a very short distance and that only 
by holding my hands to my face. Yet I knew the 
thing to do was to climb. By pushing ahead with- 
out getting excited, and by frequent rests, the sum- 
mit was gained just as the darkness of night began 
to add to the darkness of the snow-clouds that hung 
even lower than timber line. 

The storm came from the Uncompahgre side of 
the range ; therefore I was able to make my way 
down the Henson Creek side of the range quite 
rapidly. By nine o'clock that night I entered a 
cabin and received the congratulations of what my 
wife called "some of Mr. Darley's peculiar friends." 
At noon the next day I reached home with swollen 
limbs and without my leggings. But the second 
119 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

church ever built in Colorado, west of the Sierra 
Madre range of mountains, was completed; and the 
next spring a minister was engaged to work in the ' 
camp. The Presbyterians built the first and second 
churches, on the Pacific slope, in Colorado. 

Mrs. Darley said she had never seen me look so 
haggard and weary, although the year before I had 
walked one hundred and twenty-five miles in five 
days and four nights and had suffered all that one 
man could suffer in that long walk and severe storm 
while crossing the Indian country to preach the 
Gospel in the "regions beyond." 

That eastern readers may know what it meant to 
cross high ranges when they were covered with 
deep snow, I copy the following, sent from Ouray to 
a Denver paper. The paper is dated February 5, 
1891: "News has just reached here from Mount 
Sneffles of the death of four of the Virginius miners, 
who perished in a snow-slide. They started out 
from the mine last evening to help bring in Billy 
Maher, who had been blown up in his cabin about a 
mile distant. At a point on the mountain, and at an 
altitude of about thirteen thousand feet, a heavy load 
of snow was detached and Tom Byron, S. Phillips, 
Allen Mclntyre and John Sanderlin were hurled 
down the mountain and buried fifty feet beneath the 



BUCKSKIN LEGGINGS 

mass, which packed above their bodies as solid as ice. 
This occurred about ten o'clock last night and the 
bodies were not recovered until this afternoon. 
Men worked all night and day with all their power, 
but could not reach them sooner. " 

One evening during the seventies, while sitting at 
table with a number of invited guests, the conversa- 
tion turned on what had happened the day before. 
Two prospectors were carried down a mountain side 
by a snow-slide and buried from five to ten feet; 
but immediately another slide followed from a 
greater height, uncovered the men and rolled them 
out on top of the snow before they were suffocated. 
They recovered consciousness and reached a cabin 
where they were cared for. One of the guests said : 
"No doubt Mr. Darley calls this special provi- 
dence." Knowing that it was my opportunity for a 
short talk on special providence, I took advantage 
of it. 



CHAPTER XXII 



GRAND SCENERY 



"Nature's bulwarks, built by Time, 
'Gainst Eternity to stand, 
Mountains terribly sublime, 
Girt the camp on either hand. ' ' 

— Montgomery. 

' 'Who hath measured h the waters in the hollow of his hand, 
and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the 
dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in 
scales, and the hills in a balance?" — Isaiah 40:12. 

"The scenery is awfully grand and it looks as 
though the devil reigned over all." These words 
fell from the lips of one of the wealthiest mine own- 
ers in the San Juan country. More than twenty 
years have passed since they were repeated to me, 
as I stood on the steps of the office talking to the 
superintendent of the mine, who said them in a 
way that showed their repetition had set him to 
thinking. I was impressed with the awful grandeur 
of the scenery and the fact that an intelligent man 
could see no traces of his Maker in the "awfully 
grand scenery" that was before him. 

At that time, and since then, the words of the 
Psalmist have seemed to me peculiarly strong: 




:lebrated mears toll road, promontory point. 



GRAND SCENERY 

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither 
shall I flee from thy presence? 

"If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I 
make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 

"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in 
the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy 
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." 

If a nan cannot see the footprints of his Creator 
in those 'awfully grand," lofty and imposing moun- 
tains, where on Nature's face can he see them? 
They, like grand old Ocean, speak in thunder-tones, 
saying: "?hy God reigneth." True, the devil 
reigns in the hearts of many dwellers among the 
mountains in Colorado, but he does not reign over 
all. God is among our mountains, ruling the same 
as in other regions. Man cannot find a place upon 
all God's footstool where God does not reign. 

To me it is a precious truth that none can hide 
from God. Nor are his children, while in the path 
of duty, ever beyond our gracious heavenly Father's 
outstretched arms. Those arms are ever around 
and underneath us as we look for Him. The harder 
the work and the less encouragement His laborers 
receive from without, the nearer the blessed Savior 
comes and the sweeter the communion we hold 
with Him. My own experience has been that the 
123 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

longer the journey, the severer the storm, the 
less the likelihood of my ever looking again into the 
faces of the loved ones at home, the closer my Savior 
seemed to be and the warmer grew my heart, as 
step by step I worked my way through the deep 
snow or breasted the mountain stream. If God 
should lose sight of one of His children for a 
moment, it will be when His loving heart has 
changed, His strong arms become weak and His 
all-seeing eye grown dim. 

While there is much "bold infidelity" in the 
mountain towns of Colorado, there are many more 
faithful followers of Christ than some men would 
like to have us believe. When the prophet Elijah 
said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord God of 
Hosts, because the Children of Israel lave forsaken 
Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain 
Thy prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, 
am left, and they seek my life to take it away, ' ' God 
said unto him: "Yet I have left me seven thousand 
in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto 
Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him." 

Elijah thought the devil must be reigning over 

Israel, for "I, even I only, am left"; but he was 

greatly mistaken. Instead of being alone he was one 

among the thousands in Israel who worshiped the 

124 



GRAND SCENERY 

true God. In all this there is a lesson, not only for 
God's children who are laboring in the hardest fields 
among the Rocky Mountains, but for God's laborers 
everywhere. We know not what may be going on 
in the hearts of those among whom we labor. Men 
do not always speak out the moment they see the 
error of their ways. Many are thinking about the 
interests of their souls and, ere long, may join 
Christ's army. Fight on, faithful ones, and, if need 
be, suffer on; for victory will surely be yours; 
whether you labor in the heart of the Rockies, where 
the scenery is ' ' awfully grand, " or in some other 
place. "For if God be for us, who can be against 
us?" "He doeth according to His will in the army 
of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; 
and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, what 
doest Thou?" Remember, that none will be for- 
gotten or unrecognized by the Master when He 
comes to render to every man according to his work. 
If at any time we become discouraged about our 
work, let us call to mind that it is God's work in 
which we are engaged; and although we call it 
ours, in reality it is His. We are the instruments, 
therefore He will permit no failure. At seasons He 
will leave us to ourselves, and, instead of helping, 
observe, to see if we are doing our duty. It is 
125 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

recorded of a Highland chief of the noble house of 
McGregor that, when he fell wounded at the battle 
of Preston Pans, his clan, seeing their chief fall, wav- 
ered and gave the enemy an advantage. The old 
chieftain, beholding the effects of his disaster, raised 
himself upon his elbow while the blood gushed in 
streams from his wounds, and cried aloud : "I am 
not dead, my children, I am looking at you to see 
you do your duty. ' ' These words revived the sink- 
ing courage of the brave Highlanders and roused 
them to put forth their mightiest energies, and they 
did all that human strength could do to stem and 
turn the dreadful tide of battle. 

And may I not with propriety ask, if the 
knowledge that their chief was looking at them to 
see them do their duty nerved those brave men and 
caused them to press forward in the fight, shall not 
the knowledge we have that our Commander-in- 
chief is looking at and commanding us to do our 
duty nerve us for the conflict? 

Surely, as Christians, we have as much for which 
to contend as any class. But, since it is all for the 
glory of God and the good of souls, we should not 
hesitate, but go forward laboring earnestly and 
faithfully at all times, knowing that God sees and 
will help. All that we do for him, whether it be 
126 



GRAND SCENERY 

among his own dear children or that class who per- 
sist in saying that the "devil reigns over all," will 
be rewarded. 

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward 
you, saith the Lord ; thoughts of peace, and not of 
evil, to give thee an expected end. 

' ' For God is not unrighteous, to forget your work 
and labor of love. " 

"Sow beside all waters, 

Where the dew of heaven may fall ; 
Ye shall reap, if ye be not weary, 
For the Spirit breathes o'er all. 
"Sow where the morning breaketh, 
In beauty o'er the land; 
And when the evening falleth, 
Withhold not thine hand. 
"Sow, though the rock repel thee, 
In its cold and sterile pride; 
Some cleft there may be riven, 
Where the little seeds may hide. 
"Watch not the clouds above thee; 

Let the whirlwind round thee sweep ; 
God may the seed-time give thee, 
But another hand may reap. 
"Have faith, though ne'er beholding 
The seed burst from its tomb ; 
Thou knowest not which may perish 
Or what be spared to bloom." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

TERRIBLE HONESTY IN THE FACE OF DEATH 

"Deathbed repentance is burning the candle of life in the 
service of the devil, then blowing the snuff in the face of 
heaven." — Lorenzo Dow. 

It is generally believed that every man fears 
death. Such was my belief once; it is not now. 
Men become so hardened, or else so careless, that it 
will take something besides death to scare them. 
Possibly they have such command over self that we 
cannot discover the least sign of fear when they are 
called to face eternity, with all its dread realities to 
those who know not the truth as it is in Jesus, 
neither the power nor the love of God. I have wit- 
nessed some queer death-scenes — men waiting as 
calmly for the dark messenger as they would for a 
meal, with no preparation to meet him. 

I visited a young man who was dying. He knew 
for months that he could not live, yet so far as 
known he had made no preparation for the great 
change. I had often talked with him, and noticed a 
terrible honesty in all he said. The day he died I 
was sitting holding his hand and talking to him. 



TERRIBLE HONESTY 

After praying with him, as I rose from kneeling, he 
looked me squarely in the eyes and said: "Mr. 
Darley" (with shortening breath), 

"The devil was sick, 

The devil a monk would be ; 
The devil was well, 

The devil a monk was he. ' ' 

then pressed my hand, and said, "Good-bye." 

Often have I stood by the corpse of one who was 
well instructed in the truths of Christianity, but 
who had neglected to heed the parting words of 
parents and friends. As I have looked down at the 
pale face and then at the stern yet manly coun- 
tenances of hundreds of miners, my soul has burned 
within me when I warned them against the putting 
off the seeking of the "pearl of great price," against 
preferring earthly treasures before the unsearchable 
riches of Christ. Some have fallen by the assassin's 
hand, others have been swept into eternity by the 
avalanche, that rushes down the mountain side with 
the rapidity of lightning and from which the hardy 
prospector has but little chance of escape; others 
have been killed by premature blasts. One in par- 
ticular I shall never forget. Young, strong and 
manly, he looked at his shattered limbs in terror, 
129 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

but could not believe he would die until two or 
three hours before his death ; then came a wail for 
the grief it would cause his aged father, who was 
depending on him for support and was a thousand 
miles away. Others have been frozen to death. 
Yet, notwithstanding the many dangers with which 
men are surrounded, hundreds are as reckless as it 
is possible for them to be. Step by step they scale 
the giddy height, seeking for hidden wealth. They 
seem to ignore the dangers about them ; they appear 
to think only of the "bonanza" they expect to 
strike. 



130 



CHAPTER XXIV 

EXPERIENCE WITH INDIANS 

"I bid you look into the lives of all men as it were into a 
mirror." —Trent. 

A man's opinion of the Indian varies somewhat 
according to his experience with him. During the 
summer of '77 "Cap" Cline's cabin in Ouray was the 
favorite resort of the Ute chiefs and other Indians, 
as was also the cabin of Major Call. 1 ate with and 
talked to these red men until I became acquainted 
with them. Among Ignacio's band of Southern 
Utes was an Indian named Suckett, who greatly 
desired to drive the white settlers out of the 
country. The head chief of the tribe was very 
friendly to the settlers and told Suckett that the 
next time he came on the Uncompahgre River for 
the purpose of trying to make trouble, he would kill 
him, a thing Ouray never hesitated to do when he 
thought it necessary. Suckett gave no heed to the 
warning, but came back ; when Ouray told Osepa to 
kill him, which Osepa did. This made the Southern 
Utes angry, and, it being an Indian's nature to kill 
someone if a friend has been killed, Ouray sent 
131 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

word to the camp bearing his name for no one to 
cross the reservation until he told them it would be 
safe. Col. H. F. Blythe, who was afterwards 
elected elder of the first church organization in 
Ouray, and myself, thought there would be no 
trouble over one dead Indian, so we started with one 
pack animal and our saddle-horses. Before making 
our first camp an Indian rode up and began making 
signs about ponies. We told him we had passed 
ponies up the Uncompahgre River. He went in 
the direction in which his ponies were, but in less 
than ten minutes came back and rode along with us 
without speaking. As soon as we camped for 
dinner he sat down and waited until we were ready 
to eat. We did not invite him to eat, for we needed 
what provision we had for ourselves ; and the Indian 
was near his own victuals. He came close to what 
was cooked and sat down, but did not offer to take 
anything. We emptied a can of peaches on a tin 
plate, cut some bread and poured our coffee. Colo- 
nel Blythe asked if he should pour some coffee in 
the empty can for the Indian. I knew that, like all 
the Utes, this one could speak English, and it was 
nonsense for him to sit like "a bump on a log." 
I answered: "Not unless he asks for it; and if he 
reaches for anything we will take a finger off." 
132 



EXPERIENCE WITH INDIANS 

After we began eating the Indian said: "Coffee." 
"You can say coffee, can you?" "Yes," said our 
self-invited guest. A moment later he said: 
"Sugar." "You can say sugar, can you?" "Yes." 
Then, "Read." "So you can talk?" "Yes." Then 
he talked as well as any one ; and after eating helped 
pack, then left us. 

We had a delightful trip ; the nights were beauti- 
ful, and, with our blankets, we kept warm. With the 
exception of being followed by a party of young 
"bucks" who demanded "whisky," we had no 
unpleasant words with the Indians. At one point 
we found a large crowd watching horse-races. We 
stopped to enjoy the sport. The Utes have some 
good horses and understand getting the speed out 
of them. 

At the present day a great deal is said for and as 
much against the Indian ; and most that is said on 
either side is by those who have studied the question 
at "long range." In the fall of '60 I first moved to 
a territory where there were plenty of Indians. 
Nebraska City was a small place, inhabited princi- 
pally by the freighters who made it their head- 
quarters. Among them was Alexander Majors, 
"Pete" and "Gus" Byron and other well-known 
western men. 

133 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

The old log fort (old Fort Kearney) was still 
standing, being used for a jail. I was young, and, 
having lived until then in St. Louis, Mo., the change 
was great ; everything interested me, especially the 
Indians. The agent for the Otoes lived in the 
town, so we saw much of the Indians. One winter 
several hundred Pawnees camped near us and then 
we saw more Indians than we cared to see; they 
were a perfect nuisance. They would walk into our 
houses without knocking, put their faces against the 
windows and scare the women almost out of their 
wits. Occasionally the fingers of an Indian would 
stick to what did not belong to him. That winter, 
one who acted as interpreter for the agent of the 
Otoes, began coasting with us boys. He looked to 
be about thirty years of age and wanted to be "big 
Indian." While one of the boys was passing him 
on the hill (the boy having a faster running sled), 
the Indian struck him. After the Indian started up 
the hill the boy said: "If that Indian strikes me 
again I will knock him down." Another boy said: 
"You dare not say that to his face." A stone about 
the size of the boy's hand lay near. He picked it 
up and started for the top of the hill in company 
with four other boys. 

The Indian was waiting for us. So soon as the 
134 



EXPERIENCE WITH INDIANS 

hill- top was reached the boy said: "If you strike me 
again I will knock you down. ' ' The Indian struck 
the boy in the face ; and the boy not only knocked 
him down, but knocked out his front teeth and cut 
a terrible gash through both lips, from his nose to 
his chin. As soon as the Indian came to and got 
up, he started for the agent's house and came run- 
ning back with a double-barreled shotgun in his 
hands. We saw him coming, but the boy who 
knocked him down refused to run; but he finally "lit 
out," and reached home in safety. The matter was 
settled, but it was thought best to keep an eye on 
the Indian. 

Having moved to the San Juan when Colorado 
was a territory, and having lived near the Ute reser- 
vation, crossing it frequently, eating with the 
Indians and sleeping among them, I know some- 
what of their character. I have been with them in 
Montana, as well as in Nebraska and Colorado. 
Wherever I went I found them to be as lazy mortals 
as ever lived. 

Yet an Indian has rights that should be respected. 
To rob him or his tribe of land, whether through 
misrepresentation or by selling stuff that is use- 
less, or by cutting a double blanket in two and 
calling it two blankets, is robbery for which no 
135 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

honest man attempts to offer an apology and for 
which God will call men to account. 

Let us not forget that an Indian is a savage and 
unacquainted with refined, polite and elevated 
rascality that will rob you in such a way that you 
are almost compelled to say : ' ' Thank you. ' ' 

These gentlemanly wolves should not be per- 
mitted to deal with the Indian ; for savages cannot 
understand just how it is. All they know is they 
have been robbed and their only desire is for 
revenge on some other white man. As a rule it is 
the innocent man who reaps the revenge of the 
Indian. Then this outrage is as hard for the whites 
to understand as the polished way in which the 
Indian is robbed is for him to understand. Hence 
our troubles with the Indian. 



136 



CHAPTER XXV 

A PRESBYTERIAN ELDER'S PLUCK 

"A diamond with a flaw in it is better than a perfect peb- 
ble." — Selected. 

Sometimes godly men are compelled to do that 
which seems ungodly to those who have never 
dealt, worked and associated with rough, boorish 
and selfish men. Ministers as well as elders have 
been obliged to use a little "muscular Christianity," 
that others may understand that ministers, like 
elders, are only human. Since the elder is a good 
man to put to the front the minister can remain in 
the background. 

I knew a very devout, intelligent, good-natured 
elder who had a most surly and irreligious man for 
a partner. Together they were working a leased 
mine. They were first-class miners and both were 
very close run financially. Before signing a con- 
tract the elder said: "I want it distinctly imderstood 
that I will not work on the Lord's Day, and that 
will necessitate that we work about one-half day 
Monday to get the water out that will accumulate in 
the mine." To this his partner agreed and they 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

began work. The first Sabbath nothing unpleasant 
was said; but the second (they "bached" in a log 
cabin) the surly one began growling about "knock- 
ing off Sunday" and that it took "a half -day Monday 
to get the water out of the mine. ' ' 

The elder made no reply. The third Sabbath, as 
he was getting ready for church, his partner began 
swearing at him. This was more than he could 
stand, and, being a powerful man, he grabbed his 
partner by the throat and bumped his head against 
the side of the cabin till he begged for mercy. The 
elder let him go with the promise to "finish him the 
next time he dared to swear as he had. ' ' 

That morning, during church service, the elder 
looked rather glum, which was so contrary to the 
man's nature that I knew something was wrong 
with our good brother. After the close of service 
he said he wanted to talk with me. He told me 
what had occurred and added that he ought to have 
kept his temper; that an elder held a sacred office 
and his action might injure the church. "What do 
you think?" I replied: "I think you did just right, 
and my advice to you is, keep your promise if he 
ever dares to swear at you again ; for you know that 
I have great faith in 'muscular Christianity,' when 
properly applied." 

138 



A PRESBYTERIAN ELDER'S PLUCK 

Such men are worth their weight in gold. Manly, 
conscientious, kindly, good-natured, yet no one can 
run over them or the church in which they rule in 
spiritual things. 



139 



CHAPTER XXVI 

A BARREL HALF-FULL OF ROTTEN ONIONS FOR 
A PULPIT 

"I don't like these cold, precise, perfect people, who, in order 
not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do 
wrong, never do anything." — Beecher. 

I sent word to a saloon-keeper that I would be in 
his camp on the following Sunday and that I 
expected to preach in his saloon. On my arrival a 
man very kindly offered to take care of my horse, so 
I was at liberty to go where I pleased. When 
entering the saloon I found that I was to have the 
use of the room, as requested; but instead of a faro- 
table, a barrel was placed for a pulpit, with a small 
box on top which was covered with a white napkin. 
So soon as I saw that everything was arranged, I 
was surprised and a little suspicious. Nearing the 
barrel I discovered what was the matter, and 
decided to turn the tables on those who had "put up 
the job" by not seeming to notice that there was 
anything wrong. 

I placed my Bible on the box, and then walked 
around the room, talking to different ones until time 
for services. 

140 



ROTTEN ONIONS FOR A PULPIT 

The text chosen was St. Luke 16:31 — "And he 
said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 
one rose from the dead." The saloon-keeper sat in 
front of me on a whisky barrel that was laid on its 
side, so got the full benefit. 

When services began he was sitting on the high- 
est part of the barrel. Soon he slid down to one 
end; then he edged his way up to the middle and 
then slid down to the other end ; thus he put in the 
time, much to the amusement of those present, and 
I. trust with profit to his soul. Evidently he did not 
agree with my Calvinistic view of future punish- 
ment. I preached for thirty minutes, although 
almost ready "to quit before I began," and unless 
those who "put up the job" on the preacher read 
this, they will never know that the preacher saw the 
point. 

As I was leaving a pleasant-appearing man took 
my hand and said, "Come again." I felt something 
soft, and held to it. After taking a few steps I 
examined what was in my hand and found a 
twenty-dollar bill. Since then I have preached in 
large churches without receiving anything more 
than expressions of appreciation. One peculiarity 
about drinking men in "live" mining -camps is their 
141 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

sense of honor when dealing with a minister ; they 
insist on paying for their preaching and for funeral 
services. 

Often when refusing to accept money for officiat- 
ing at a funeral, men have said: "Parson, you can't 
live without money any more than the rest of us." 
That is so; and if Christians everywhere were of the 
same opinion the treasury of our Board of Home 
Missions would never be empty. No doubt min- 
isters are often reminded of the story in which the 
deacon remarked, after the installation services: 
"My dear brother, if the Lord will only keep you 
humble we will keep you poor." A little more 
generosity would not be a great burden to the 
Church at large ; yet it would be highly appreciated 
by home missionaries as well as by the boards of 
our beloved Church. 



142 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE KIND OF MEN NEEDED AT THE FRONT 

'A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want of a 
little courage." — Sydney Smith. 

' 'The servants of the Lord should be as bold for their Master 
as the Devil's servants are for theirs." 

— Countess of Warwick. 

We read about "the relations of higher education 
to the Christian ministry." The Presbyterian 
Church papers, in particular, have much to say on 
this subject; but very little to say on the relations 
of a higher idea of grace and self-sacrifice to the 
Christian ministry. Many believe there are fewer 
inducements for young men to enter the ministry at 
the present day than there were a half -century ago. 

Is there less to draw young men to the ministry 
now than in the days of the Apostles, or during the 
first century of the Christian era? Have ministers 
fewer opportunities to show true heroism now than 
had those of the Reformation? 

There is less inducement along certain lines. We 
have not so many chances to suffer and, therefore, 
fewer opportunities of glorying in tribulation. We 
143 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

are not permitted to "take pleasure in infirmities, in 
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions and in 
distresses for Christ's sake," as was Paul. But this 
should not deter young men from entering the 
ministry. 

The early Christian ministers "were tortured, not 
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a 
better resurrection, and others had trials of cruel 
mockings and scourgings; yea, moreover, of bonds 
and imprisonments; they were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain with 
the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins, 
being destitute, afflicted and tortured, of whom the 
world was not worth)'." The Lord Jesus said of 
himself: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the 
air have nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where 
to lay his head. ' ' 

What about the sufferings of Polycarp? How did 
Luther fare in the forests of Germany? What 
enjoyment had Bunyan in Bedford Jail? What 
inducements were offered to those who entered the 
ministry in the dark ages of the Reformation, when 
the souls of men were tried as by fire? More 
inducements then than now. Still there are left 
some for young men of grace, grit, nerve, consecra- 
tion, energy and intellectual ability. 
144 



KIND OF MEN NEEDED IN FRONT 

Think of the pleasures such men have when they 
see the waste places of the "Far West" blossoming 
and blooming like the rose! Churches built in 
which to worship our Creator, and sinners brought 
to a saving knowledge of God in Christ Jesus! 
There is yet very much to be done before the battle 
cry of the Church, "Our Land for Christ," is fully 
answered, as we pray God it soon may be. 

On the frontier, among the highest ranges of 
the Rockies, you can find work that will try all the 
love for Christ that is in your heart, work, the 
faithful performance of which will lead you across 
the track of many a wild and awfully sweeping 
avalanche, whose roar makes the stoutest heart 
tremble. Never fear that you will not have oppor- 
tunities of showing whether or not your religion is 
the kind that will bear testing. Occasionally the 
chance will be given of making your bed in the 
snow ; and should darkness overtake you — as it has 
other missionaries when in a storm — above "timber 
line, ' ' you can spend the night above the clouds. 

Young men, say not that the nineteenth century 
has lost all inducements for you to enter the minis- 
try and endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. 
Our land, and especially the Great West, wants 
men, — brave men, men with Christ in their hearts, 
145 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

men with strong wills, strong faith and an abun- 
dance of physical strength. I repeat it, the Great 
West wants men, brave men, for the enemy's works 
are strong and the pirate flag of sin has waved 
already too long in many of our villages and mining 
camps. Young men, come. Do not doubt but 
that you will find inducements enough and fields 
wide enough for usefulness. No matter how tal- 
ented you may be, all your talents will be needed 
to make your field bear fruit. 

You will find use for your hands as well as for 
your heart and head, and, when tired and worn and 
needing rest, even then the cry will be heard : 

"Not now, for I have wanderers in the distance, 
And thou must call them in with patient love ; 
Not now, for I have sheep upon the mountains, 
And thou must follow them where'er they rove." 

Young men, if love for God, for Christ and for 
souls is not inducement enough for you to enter 
the ministry, my advice to you is to stay out. If 
inducements to enter the ministry mean a fine 
church-building, a wealthy congregation, a pleasant 
parsonage, a library (such as every minister desires), 
a session, trustees, superintendent of Sabbath 
School and everything up to the mark, with a 
146 



KIND OF MEN NEEDED IN FRONT 

model prayer-meeting thrown in — then I admit that 
the inducements to enter the ministry are few. But 
if hard work on fields where souls are perishing for 
the lack of a faithful minister to point them to the 
"Lamb of God," and to wield the "sword of the 
Spirit," as a good soldier, holding it up in all its 
brightness that it may cut sinners to the heart, 
putting them into proper shape, making them fit 
stones for the great temple God is building; or 
where you may be compelled to labor for months, 
yea, for years, without gathering one golden sheaf 
for the Master — then come, if these things mean 
sufficient reasons for entering the Christian min- 
istry. Get the highest education you are capable of 
receiving. Then look for a field where you can 
work and endure hardness, and you will find it. 

If you do your duty on some of the fields that are 
loudly calling for men, you will have the oppor- 
tunity of feeling very forcibly the words of Christ, 
when he said he had not where to lay his head ; for 
your pillow will be your saddle, a stone, or the 
snow. 

"When the Batavia was crossing the Atlantic in a 

terrific storm and there was sighted in the glooming 

evening twilight a wreck with several men clinging 

to the shrouds; when it was a question of life or 

i47 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

death to man a boat and pull to the rescue, Captain 
Mouland's call for volunteers was instantly 
responded to by twice the number needed for the 
service. Out of this number he commissioned 
the picked men, who hastened to their critical trust 
and, indue time, joyfully returned, bringing in nine 
rescued souls, amid the hearty cheers of their com- 
rades, who generously envied them the honor of 
which they themselves had been deprived. When 
shall the time come that always twice the number 
of men needed will volunteer for the most advanced 
and perilous posts of aggressive missionary service, 
and our only care be to select the strongest and the 
best? God speed the day!" 



148 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE "WHAT I USED TO DO IN THE EAST" KIND OF 
CHRISTIANS 

"Lapidaries tell us of the Chalcedonian stone, that it will 
retain its virtue and luster no longer than it is enclosed in gold. 
A fit emblem of the hypocrite, who is only good while he is 
enclosed in golden prosperity, safety and felicity. ' ' 

— T. Brooks. 

Pray, what kind of Christians are these? The 
kind who used to teach in Sabbath Schools "back 
East," but who will not teach in Sabbath Schools 
"out West." The kind of Christians who used 
to "remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy," 
"back East," but who break it right in two "out 
West." The kind of Christians who used to 
attend prayer-meetings "back East," but are par- 
ticular not to let it be known that they are pro- 
fessing Christians while living "out West." They 
are the kind of Christians who are walking hand in 
hand with the devil, going straight to hell with the 
mark of a Christian profession upon them and with 
their names enrolled on church books "back East." 
They are the kind of Christians who joined some 
church "back East," but who never joined the Lord 
Jesus Christ. They are numerous "out West." In 
149 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

the Bible they are called "stumbling-blocks. ' ' They 
avoid God's house and, by their actions, lead men 
to think that they believe the Lord cannot see them 
after they cross the Missouri River; and they prefer 
that ministers would not bother them until they 
recross that muddy stream on their way "back 
East, ' ' back to where they left their religion. They 
belong to that class who never had much to do with 
the Lord "back East," but who imagine the Lord 
has a great deal to do with them, because he saw 
their names on a church book. 

Whenever we who live in the West see a profess- 
ing Christian from the East absenting himself from 
church services and the place where prayer is wont 
to be made, and persistently and regularly desecrat- 
ing the Sabbath Day, going with the multitude to 
do evil, we say that man is not a sinner saved by 
grace, but a graceless sinner. My heart has often 
been made sore by seeing professing Christians 
doing many things "out West" that they admit they 
would be ashamed to do "back East." Far better 
for such persons had they never united with the 
church, for now they are "trampling the blood of 
the Covenant under their feet as an unholy thing, ' ' 
crucifying the Lord of glory "afresh," for which 
God will call them to account. 
150 



KIND OF CHRISTIANS 

"Back-East" Christians, who are living out West 
without God, let me say to you in all kindness that 
location does not make the Christian, but the grace of 
God shed abroad in the heart, and a saving knowledge 
of God through the Savior. It is the "blood of Jesus 
Christ, His Son" that cleanses from all sin, and not 
the placing of your name on a church book "back 
East." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but 
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." 

If the religion of Christ is worth anything "back 
East," it is worth just as much "out West." And 
if Christ was in your heart "back East," he has not 
deserted you because you are living "out West." 
You are the deserter, and not Christ. 



151 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE BOARD OF CHURCH ERECTION 

"The water of life is free — 'without money and without 
price,' but we must pay for pitchers to carry it in." 

— Dr. Adams' "Hostess." 

The Board of Church Erection has aided almost 
every church organization in Colorado that has a 
house of worship in securing the same, and, being a 
twin brother of the Board of Home Missions, should 
be liberally sustained. One of the crying needs of 
the Presbyterian Church to-day, that comes to us 
from all over our beloved land, is more money for 
church buildings. 

Hundreds of homeless churches are struggling for 
life because they are homeless. A church organiza- 
tion without a church building is like a family with- 
out a home — no certain abiding-place. In many 
instances they worship God as a church when it is 
most convenient for the owners of the building to 
allow it to be used for that purpose (the use of it for 
other purposes paying the owners better). The 
consequence is, such organizations without church 
buildings do not become strong; rarely are they 



THE BOARD OF CHURCH ERECTION 

self-supporting. True, the Board supplements the 
minister's salary and the field is "held"; but when, 
with the aid of our Board of Church Erection, a 
comfortable house of worship is erected and the 
homeless organization housed, then the field is not 
only "held," but the work progresses; and if there 
be a reasonable growth in the town, the church 
becomes self-supporting, and not only releases the 
Board of Home Missions from paying part of the 
minister's salary, but is a source of help in assisting 
feeble churches by its contributions. Every dollar 
contributed to the Board of Church Erection brings 
returns such as should encourage the contributor to 
invest more in the same way. 

There is something like speculation in nearly 
everything in life. Even in our giving we find 
objects which appear worthy; yet in giving to 
them we are taking chances. But there are objects 
to which all may give with perfect freedom as to the 
certainty of the results; among which are the 
Boards of our Church, and of the latter the Board 
of Church Erection has ever been doing its part of 
the work, economically and grandly, though quietly. 

While on the frontier, building churches and 
preaching the Gospel, I frequently wondered whether 
the churches so generously helped by the Board of 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Church Erection would ever forget the assistance 
received. I think something like f orgetf ulness must 
be the case where so many churches bid an affec- 
tionate farewell to the Board of Church Erection 
after the church building is paid for. 



154 



CHAPTER XXX 



"What is meant by a 'knowledge of the world' is simply an 
acquaintance with the infirmities of men." — Dickens. 

A young minister once said to a prospector, "I 
have a prospect. ' ' Then he told how the part on 
which he expected to work was covered with gold, 
and gave a glowing description of the Heavenly 
Jerusalem. When he closed his description the 
prospector said, rather dryly: "I, too, have such a 
prospect, but have not been working my assess- 
ments." 

A temperance lecturer visited a frontier town 
and, while there, delivered a lecture that was consid- 
ered severe. After he had gone some one wrote 
him that if he would come back and deliver that 
lecture again he would be hanged. He replied: 
"Your letter received; inducements not sufficient." 

While riding through Silverton, in '77, with Rev. 
Sheldon Jackson, D. D., we saw a sign which read: 

155 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

"Westminster Saloon." I asked the Doctor if he 
"thought that was kept by a Presbyterian?" 

A friend introduced me to a gentleman who had 
bought an interest in a small smelter. After the 
purchase had been made by the company to which 
he belonged, the majority felt that it was not the 
proper thing to be engaged in a business that 
necessitated working on the Sabbath. The man's 
conscience seemed to be troubling him. He 
explained how they came to purchase the smelter, 
and then added that the members of the company 
had decided to devote one-seventh of the profits to 
charitable work. Said he: "What do you think 
about it, Mr. Darley?" The man, having asked a 
pointed question, was deserving of a pointed answer. 
I said: "I can tell you a story that contains the 
whole business." "All right," said he. "An 
Assyrian, after his conversion, refused to work on 
the Sabbath day. His employer remonstrated with 
him, saying that the Bible taught that if a man's ass 
fell into a pit on the Sabbath lay it was right to 
pull him out. 'Yes,' said the Assyrian, 'but if 
the same ass falls into the same pit every Sabbath, 
you had better sell the ass or fill up the pit. ' ' ' After 
thinking a moment, my new acquaintance said: 
156 



AMUSING 

"You are right, that story puts it all into a nut- 
shell." 

A miner died while the "Parson" was away from 
camp and, after a consultation held by his friends, 
it was decided not to bury him without appropriate 
remarks. An educated, though somewhat dissi- 
pated friend was chosen to "conduct services." 
The friend said among other things: "The departed 
was a noble specimen of mankind; high-minded, 
brave and true, a man of generous impulses ; since 
he came among us he was never known to drink 
alone. ' ' 

On one occasion when the "Parson" asked to 
hold services in a saloon, the proprietor not only 
consented, but generously proposed to "ring up" 
the loose men in the small camp. After procuring 
a dinner bell from the log-cabin hotel, he rang the 
bell vigorously while walking from cabin to cabin, 
at the same time crying loudly : "All you ungodly, 
sinning , come and hear the Gospel preached !" 

When the service was over the "Parson" received 
a very gratifying contribution. 

A San Juan miner sold a mine in New York and, 
feeling rich, went into a leading restaurant and 
ordered dinner. Being dressed in Western style, 
i=7 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

little attention was paid to him. As a waiter 
passed, the miner said: "Bring me something to 
eat." The waiter replied: "I am serving a fifty- 
dollar dinner. ' ' The miner then exclaimed : ' ' Bring 
me a fifteen-hundred-dollar dinner of ham and 
eggs!" 



158 



CHAPTER XXXI 

A FEW THOUGHTS WHILE ON THE TRAIL 

"Thinking is creating with God, as thinking is writing with 
the ready writer ; and worlds are only leaves turned over in the 
process of composition about His throne." — Beechcr. 

The religion of Christ, as presented to us in His 
life, and manifested in the lives of His faithful fol- 
lowers, who daily live in the Spirit and walk as the 
Spirit directs, is the most beautiful thing of which 
the human mind can conceive. For it is not only 
heaven-born in its teachings and tendencies, but it 
lifts the soul of man upward as nothing else can. 
It sustains in life, comforts in death, and through 
Jesus will usher the soul that believes into heavenly 
joys that will never end. 

Sorrows and afflictions always carry with them a 
cup of ointment made up of God's mercy and love. 
If we ask God for his Holy Spirit, He will grant our 
request ; and when the Comforter is come, He will 
apply the ointment to the bruised hearts and cause 
them to be healed. 

159 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Sometimes God in His infinite wisdom sees it is 
for man's best good and His own glory to pluck 
the bud and take it to Himself, which if left to 
bloom on earth would be the most beautiful of all 
the roses on the bush. Mourning one, comfort your 
troubled heart, and look up; for so sure as God 
plucked the rose in the bud, just so sure will He 
cause it to bloom in the garden of that heavenly 
paradise above. 

Christianity can never grow and flourish under the 
shadow of worldliness any more than can corn under 
the shadow of forest trees. One needs the Sun of 
Righteousness, the other the sun in the firmament, 
that they may grow and bear fruit; one for the 
glory of God, the other for the benefit of man. If 
we conform to the world, we become shrouded with 
its darkness, and our light will not shine through 
the mist that surrounds us. Instead of our light 
shining that others, seeing our good works, may 
glorify God, we put our light under a bushel and 
give no light to the world. 

Many who reject Christ now and try to overthrow 
His kingdom, like those who were determined that 
He should die the death of a malefactor, are as con- 

160 



A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE TRAIL 

scious of the hard task they have undertaken, and 
work as zealously for the accomplishment of their 
terrible purpose, as did the false accusers of our 
blessed Lord. 

The windows of the soul are often clouded by 
tears that fall from our eyes, because many relatives 
and friends have crossed the dark river; and for 
that reason even the most precious promises and 
cheering truths in God's word are seen "through a 
glass darkly"; therefore lose much of their strength 
and sweetness for a while ; but when God in mercy 
wipes clean those windows we not only see but 
realize the strength and comfort contained in His 
promises, and are cheered by the God-given truth, 
"Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." 

God, who sitteth in the heavens, and judgeth all 
mankind, is not controlled in His judgment by the 
impatience of His creatures regarding His time and 
way of rendering unto every man his just dues. 
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 
Neither is He controlled in His judgment of what is 
best for His children by their anxiety and ignorance 
as to what is for their best good. "Your Father 
knoweth what things ye have need of. " 
161 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Strong faith in God, faith that causes His children 
to lie calmly, contentedly and peacefully in His 
arms, enjoying religion as they are privileged, 
comes not without experience, for in religion, as in 
other things, experience is needed. The ripe experi- 
ence that comes through trial often proves a great 
blessing. By experience we learn that God will not 
do for us what we can do for ourselves, and that He 
delights to be inquired of. It would be injurious to 
our souls for God to place His loving and protecting 
hand between us and some trial we are approach- 
ing, for the experience brought may be just what 
the soul needs. Should God always stand between 
us and trial we might come to believe that by our 
own wisdom we had avoided it. To be truly bene- 
fited by God's mercies we must learn by experience 
to appreciate what God in mercy sends. 

Put all the love that is possible into your faith, 
and you will not find it difficult to serve God. Love 
smooths the roughest edges of obedience, and makes 
the hardest work for the Master a pleasure. 

A log cabin with a dirt roof is the most comfort- 
able house that can be built. It is coolest in sum- 
mer and warmest in winter. Whenever we hear 
162 



A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE TRAIL 

those who are living in elegant-looking and finely- 
painted houses, with shingled or slated roof, 
complaining of the heat in summer, or the cold in 
winter, we feel that it is a pleasant thing to have a 
log cabin, with a dirt roof, to live in. Not every- 
one can stand all these comforts without becoming 
proud, but some can. While the log-cabinites have 
reason to feel proud, their sympathy for their suffer- 
ing and unfortunate fellow citizens who are com- 
pelled to live in houses made of board or of brick, 
and then shingled over, keeps them from organizing 
what might be called the log-cabin aristocracy. 
And since we are not proud and do not like to be 
called by big-sounding names, nor cold-hearted 
enough to laugh at the unfortunate, we log-cabinites 
will just enjoy our log cabins and keep still about it. 



163 



CHAPTER XXXII 

LAME HOME MISSION CHURCHES 

"Ye lame, fear not, you will not be cast out. Two snails 
entered the ark ; how they got there I cannot tell. It must 
have taken them a long time. They must have set off rather 
early, unless it be that Noah took them part of the way. So 
some of you are snails ; you are on the right road ; but it will 
take a long while, unless some blessed Noah helps you into the 
ark." — Spurgeon. 

The trouble is not, as some have supposed, the 
inability of home missionaries to preach accept- 
ably, but the live-on-father-as-long-as-we-can spirit 
that is in so many mission churches. When a 
church building is to be erected, the first question 
asked is, "How much can we get from the Board of 
Church Erection?" When the missionary's salary 
is mentioned, the first question asked is, "How 
much will the Board of Home Missions give us?" 
Having had some experience in home mission work, 
I know whereof I speak. 

This live-on-father-as-long-as-we-can spirit is, to 

say the least, a spirit that should be despised, 

whether it be in a church or individual. It has 

often brought trial to the home of some faithful mis- 

164 



LAME HOME MISSION CHURCHES 

sionary. He is conscientious, knows something of 
the great work that is being done, and the usually 
low financial condition of the Board, tries his best to 
have the church or churches to which he preaches 
take care of themselves, since he is unwilling that 
more should be asked of the board than is necessary, 
and since the Board can only pay out what is paid 
in, he suffers to no small extent. "But," says one, 
"educate the members of these churches up to a 
higher standard of Christian duty." Correct! 
Those who serve these lame home mission churches 
are trying to do this, and therefore are on the 
"right road" ; but it will take these churches a long 
time to become self -supporting "unless some blessed 
Noah helps them into the ark. ' ' After a man has 
spent years in home-mission work on the frontier, 
and has been taught by experience that about the 
time he begins to see a little fruit for his labor in 
that direction the members of his church and con- 
gregation (or the majority of them) depart for 
newer, greener and richer fields, where churches are 
scarcer and money reported to be more plentiful, 
he feels that the educating process goes very slow. 
Home missionaries are compelled to face another 
discouraging fact. Out West many sit Sabbath 
after Sabbath without contributing to the support of 
165 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

the church, beyond a mere trifle for the defraying 
of contingent expenses, while they are paying hand- 
some prices for pews in self-supporting churches 
"back East." They claim their letters are there, 
or their families occupy the pews ; therefore they are 
not able to pay toward the support of missionaries 
out West. And yet they do contribute toward this 
cause through the collections taken in their home 
churches. I have thought at times, when looking 
over the "Minutes of the General Assembly," that 
some of the churches back East were afflicted with 
lameness toward home missions, large member- 
ships and the column for "Congregational 
Expenses" showing that much was annually 
expended for the support of their own churches, yet 
very little contributed toward home missions. 
What is needed in the majority of churches all over 
the land is less lameness and more of the Holy 
Spirit. "Asa ship in the midst of the sea goeth not 
toward the haven unless it have a prosperous gale of 
wind, even so the church of God goeth not to its 
wished-for haven unless it be blown with the Spirit 
of God, and directed and set on by the same Spirit. " 



166 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



FAREWELL TO SAN JUAN 



"The blossom cannot tell what becomes of its odor, and no 
man can tell what becomes of his influence and example that 
roll away from him and go beyond his ken on their perilous 
mission. ' ' — Beecher. 

No matter how hard a minister of the Gospel may- 
have labored or how many hardships he may have 
endured, he cannot leave a field where he has 
worked for years without thoughts that cause his 
heart to be filled with heaviness, and his eyes with 
tears. Yet, if he has been faithful, and has done 
his utmost to advance the Master's kingdom among 
men, he will be remembered. Even the "queer 
class" will not forget him, and when eternity dawns 
he will realize that "much of Christ's fruit is gath- 
ered in strange orchards. ' ' 

Having completely broken down from exposure 
and overwork in the roughest portion of the Rocky 
Mountains, having been under a severe strain for 
nearly five years, I was compelled to give up a 
work that was very dear to my heart. When my 
few household goods were nearly packed, I was 
167 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

called upon by two of my "peculiar friends." 
Without any preliminaries one of them began piling 
up silver dollars and five-dollar bills on a little 
table. When the money was counted, the one 
who had brought it said : ' ' Mr. Darley, there is one 
hundred and thirty-seven dollars from the boys ; not 
one cent is from a church member. You have given 
us hell for five years; but you have always given it 
to us in the teeth. You have been kind to us when 
we were sick, and never said one word against the 
dead. We are sorry you are going away and this is 
to show our appreciation. ' ' 

The earnestness of the speaker, although under 
the influence of liquor, and the fact that he had been 
brought up in a Christian home, caused me to see 
that the good seed sown in his heart long years 
before still struggled to grow and bear fruit; but 
years of wandering from his father's house amid the 
dark mountains of sin had marred and scarred his 
soul. I have often asked myself what proportions 
of serpent and dove should be in a Christian's heart 
while dealing with these men. A quaint old min- 
ister said: "About the right proportion is an ounce 
of serpent to a pound of dove. ' ' Matthew Henry 
wrote: "The serpent's head (providing it be noth- 
ing akin to the old serpent) may well become a good 

1 68 



FAREWELL TO SAN JUAN 

Christian's body, especially if it have a dove's eye in 
it. ' ' Dove and serpent make a rather queer combi- 
nation, yet a very strong one when the right propor- 
tion enters into it. 

It is difficult at times to tell which is the most 
useful to a man ; for while the dove is without doubt 
the most beautiful, too much dove and too little 
serpent in any one nature would cause the possessor 
of it to be plucked so clean that his progress would 
be so slow as hardly to be perceptible. Like piety 
and good temper; piety, beyond doubt, is preferable 
to good temper without piety. A very pious elder 
once said to his son in view of marriage: "My boy, 
piety is essential for the life to come, but good tem- 
per is the requisite for happiness in this world. ' ' So 
would I say regarding the dove and the serpent. 
Dove-likeness will no doubt help a soul heavenward, 
yet a little of the serpent is requisite to progress in 
this world while dealing with all classes of men. 
Both are good. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents 
and harmless as doves. ' ' 



,6 9 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

HISTORICAL 

"What histories of toils could I declare! 
But still long- wearied nature wants repair." — Pope. 

"The Presbytery of Colorado" was organized by 
the Enabling Act of the General Assembly at Pitts- 
burg, Pa., November 10, 1869; on February 19, 
1870, with four ministers and six churches. There 
had existed a "Union Presbytery" prior to this 
time, but it had been dissolved by the removal of 
the few members from the field. They are sup- 
posed to have been mostly New School Presby- 
terians. 

"The Presbytery of Colorado" was divided by act 
of the Assembly at Madison, Wis., May, 1880. The 
division into the Presbyteries of Denver and Pueblo 
took place October 12, 1880, in the Central Presby- 
terian Church, Denver, Colorado. 

"The Presbytery of Pueblo" met in the infant 
Sunday-school room of said church on that day and 
elected officers (the Moderator being Lewis Hamil- 
ton), appointed committees, and adjourned for the 
first regular meeting at Trinidad, April 26, 1881. 
170 



HISTORICAL 

At that meeting the following ministers and 
churches were enrolled: Willis Lord, D. D., LL. D., 
Lewis Hamilton, Wm. P. Teitsworth, Jas. L. Mer- 
ritt, Thos. C. Kirkwood, D. D., Ruel Dodd, John 
W. Partridge, Alex. M. Darley, George M. Darley, 
Henry B. Gage, W. W. Morton, George N. Smith, 
Harry L. Janeway, Achilles L. Loder, and Charles 
M. Shepherd; with licentiates Antonio J. Rodriguez, 
Juan Bautista, and candidates Manzanares and Cort 
— nineteen in all, of whom three were Mexicans. 
The churches in Pueblo Presbytery in the order of 
their size, and, when equal, in order of their age : Col- 
orado Springs, Pueblo, Canon City, Trinidad, Silver 
Cliff, Cenicero, Lake City, Del Norte, Animas City, 
Salida, Rosita, Poncha Springs, Alamosa, La Jara 
Second, Gunnison, Ouray, San Rafael, Irwin, West 
Las Animas, Granada, La Jara First, Le Vata, and 
Saguache — twenty-three in all, with 682 members, 
36 elders, and 11 deacons. Three of these churches 
were Mexican. Two more churches were ordered 
to be organized. At the present time (October, 
1898) the First Church of Colorado Springs has a 
larger membership than the twenty-three churches 
had at the time of the organization of "The Presby- 
tery of Pueblo," October 12, 1880. Great difficulty 
was experienced in getting a quorum for a meeting 
171 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

of Synod, and not until October 10, 1883, did we 
have a meeting of Synod worthy the name. Here- 
tofore a quorum was made by a brother joining a 
Presbytery merely to obtain its representation. In 
whatever Presbytery Synod met, that Presbytery 
was practically Synod. But on October 10, 1883, at 
Del Norte, lonely Santa Fe Presbytery had three 
delegates, two from Santa Fe and one from Las 
Vegas ; Denver Presbytery came down in force, and 
Pueblo Presbytery was with us smiling all over. 
Rev. George M. Darley was stated supply of the 
Presbyterian Church of Del Norte at that time. 

At this meeting of Synod, which was the first 
meeting of the present "Synod of Colorado," con- 
sisting by action of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyteries of Denver, Pueblo and Santa Fe, a new 
division was made. Instead of three Presbyteries, 
Santa Fe was left intact; but Denver and Pueblo 
were divided, Boulder and Gunnison being created. 
This was accomplished without trouble, as the neces- 
sity of the case was recognized. One pleasant 
thought was apparent in all — the desire of each 
Presbytery to possess actual home mission ground. 
None of them desired to lack that noble element of 
the Synod's ambition and glory, the conquest of the 
border land for God and Presbyterianism. 
172 



HISTORICAL 

Many questions of vital importance to Presby- 
terianism were discussed at the meeting of Synod 
and in the Presbyteries as they met for a short time. 
But the question of most importance was the loca- 
tion of a Presbyterian College. After propositions 
from various places were considered, it was decided 
to accept that made by the citizens of Del Norte, 
and it was determined to locate "The Presbyterian 
College of the Southwest" at that place. 

When we think of the distance from any other 
institution of higher education, the delightful and 
healthful climate of the San Luis Valley, its great 
productiveness, untold agricultural and mineral 
resources, the rapidity with which the Southwest is 
growing, the intelligence of the settlers, their desire 
to educate their children, the benefit of the College 
to both English and Spanish-speaking people, there 
is no room for doubt regarding the wisdom of Synod 
in placing the College at Del Norte. 

Josiah Copley, Esq., in an article published in 
the ' ' Presbyterian Banner, ' ' has this to say for Del 
Norte and the Presbyterian College of the South- 
west: "All seemed gratified that Del Norte was 
successful, for a locality more beautiful, one com- 
bining the mingled features of beauty and grandeur, 
or one in the midst of so large a body of soil of 
173 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

extraordinary productiveness, could not be found in 
all the Rocky Mountain region." 



A MEETING OF PUEBLO PRESBYTERY. 

The Presbytery of Pueblo met in the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Colorado Springs, Friday, April 
ii, 1884, at 7 : 30 p. m., and was opened with a ser- 
mon by the retiring Moderator, Rev. H. B. Gage, 
from II. Tim., 4:1-5. There were present fifteen 
ministers and seven elders. Rev. Ruel Dodd was 
chosen Moderator, and Rev. H. Reynard temporary 
clerk. 

The following being present, were invited to sit 
as corresponding members: Revs. Geo. P. Hays, 
D. D., Presbytery of Denver; R. C. Bristol, of the 
Arkansas Valley Congregational Association ; A. P. 
Tinker, of the Presbytery of Detroit; S. H. 
Murphy, who has recently taken charge of the Pres- 
byterian Church of Trinidad, from the Presbytery 
of Mankato ; S. A. Stoddard, of the Presbytery of 
Neosho; J. W. Moore, of the Presbytery of Ozark, 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church; A. W. Arundel, 
of the Colorado Conference of the M. E. Church; 
and Elder George W. De La Verne. 

From the many items of general interest the fol- 



HISTORICAL 

lowing have been selected. A call from the Del 
Norte church for the pastoral services of Rev. 
George M. Darley, promising a salary of $1,500, 
payable quarterly and parsonage, was presented 
and accepted, and the following arrangements made 
for the installation of the pastor- elect: Rev. Willis 
Lord, D. D., to preside and preach the sermon; 
Rev. E. McLane to charge the congregation, and 
Rev. J. W. Partridge to charge the pastor; the time 
to be arranged by correspondence with the church 
session and pastor-elect. 

Rev. J. J. Gilchrist was given power as evangelist 
to receive and dismiss members in the churches of 
Alamosa and La Jara until such time as these 
churches have a session. The same power was also 
given to Rev. E. McLane in the churches of his field 
where there is no session or where it is impossible 
to get the session together. Elder Jas. Fullerton 
reported as to his work in the San Luis Valley, and 
his fidelity was very much commended by the 
brethren who were acquainted with his work. 

Manuel Sanchez was continued as a teacher 
among the Mexicans for four months. It was also 
resolved to ask the Board of Home Missions to com- 
mission another lady teacher to labor in Plaza 
Media adjoining Miss Ross' school; also to ask $500 
175 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

from the Board of Church Erection for the building 
of a school house at Guadalupe. 

Rev. George P. Hays, D. D., informed Presby- 
tery of the action of the Synodical Committee on 
Home Missions in choosing Rev. T. C. Kirkwood, 
D. D., as Synodical Missionary, and the Presby- 
tery heartily voted its appreciation for the appoint- 
ment of this brother to the position, though very 
reluctant to give up his presence and counsels in 
the important places which he occupies in the Pres- 
bytery. 

Dr. George P. Hays also stated that the printing 
press of Rev. A. M. Darley had been purchased, and 
that a Spanish paper would soon be published at Del 
Norte under the editorship of Rev. E. McLane. 
Rev. George M. Darley and Elder George M. 
Stewart were elected principal delegates to the 
General Assembly, and Rev. T. C. Kirkwood, D. D., 
and Elder J. C. McLung as alternates. 

The committee on publication reported that the 
Board was in correspondence with Rev. A. C. Gil- 
christ, of Vineland, Ind., with reference to taking 
the work of a colporteur for the Board within the 
bounds of the Presbytery. 

On Saturday evening an important meeting was 
held in the interests of Home Missions, and 
176 



HISTORICAL 

addresses were delivered by Rev. H. B. Gage and 
G. M. Darley. On Sabbath evening was held a 
popular meeting in the interests of Foreign Mis- 
sions, addressed by Rev. J. W. Partridge, of Canon 
City; Rev. S. H. Murphy, formerly of the Gaboon 
and Corisca Mission, West Africa; and Rev. E. 
McLane, formerly Missionary to Chile, South Amer- 
ica. These addresses were full of interesting infor- 
mation, and were listened to with pleasure by a 
large congregation. 

About noon on Monday, Presbytery adjourned, to 
meet in Pueblo on the Tuesday evening preceding 
the next regular meeting of the Synod of Colorado, 
which also meets in Pueblo sometime in October, 
the date being not yet fixed. 

After a pleasant and harmonious meeting, the 
brethren separated to return to their various fields 
of labor, but not without expressing their hearty 
thanks to the good people of Colorado Springs for 
their royal entertainment of the Presbytery. 



177 



CHAPTER XXXV 

A QUEER WAY OF LOOKING AT DEATH 

"There is generally something that requires hiding at the 
bottom of a mystery." — Hawthorne. 

Man is a queer animal — when left to grow up 
without care, uneducated, and trod upon in his 
youth and early manhood. A specimen of this kind 
called at my home in company with a girl that had 
worked for us. The poor girl was in great sorrow, 
and had been for several months. Her mother had 
been an invalid ; her step-father was animal in large 
degree. One night the mother disappeared very 
mysteriously. The husband was arrested amid con- 
siderable feeling that was unpleasant for him. 
Three months after the disappearance of the 
mother, her bones were found in "The Great River 
of the North." 

The coroner's jury held an inquest over the 
remains, after which the daughter desired the 
funeral services to be held at the undertaker's. She 
came to see about the funeral with a friend of the 
family who was the worse for liquor. Being a 
queer animal, he put things in rather a queer way. 
178 



QUEER WAY OF LOOKING AT DEATH 

He was indignant that any "fuss" had been made 
over the matter in the first place. He said: "I yest 
tell you vat it tise, Mr. Darley, I believe dot ven 
any one vants to die like dot vomans did, it makes 
not difrence vich road dey go; by the river" (it was 
claimed she had drowned herself) "or by some other 
road. It vas yest so goot to go dot vay as any 
other vay; but before she go, vy don't she yest 
write somedings on a piece of paper, and say she vas 
going dot vay, and save all dis hell of a fuss?" The 
poor girl sat still, but looked as though the expla- 
nation was not just as she would have liked; yet the 
funeral services were held, and she seemed satisfied. 
The husband did not attend the funeral, but sent 
word that "some one had to stay on the ranch to 
keep the cattle from eating up the crop. ' ' 



179 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

PICKING BULLETS FROM THE PULPIT THE SABBATH 
FOLLOWING MOB VIOLENCE 

"Extremes meet when expediency renders it desirable." 

— Round Table. 

At Del Norte, years ago, we had some men who 
were not considered good citizens, and the county 
contained a few more of like character. One in 
particular was not loved by the ranchmen, because 
he was accused of counting more cattle for his own 
than belonged to him. 

After repeated attempts to make him feel the 
force of law, and having failed every time, they 
decided to try lynch-law. The man was no fool 
and always appeared to me to be a perfect gentle- 
man. I do not think that his worst enemy would 
say he was not gentlemanly in his bearing. A 
stranger standing by while he talked to the minister 
would have taken him for one of the "pillars of the 
church, ' ' from the frequency of the words, ' ' Brother 
Darley. " 

• He and a man who worked for him were arrested 

and placed in the lower story of the little old court 

1 80 



PICKING BULLETS FROM THE PULPIT 

house, which was also used as a jail. The upper 
part was taken for court, town meetings, church 
services and other things. 

On Saturday this strange character decided that 
he would be lynched and made all preparations for 
it; that is, such as he considered necessary, even to 
the placing of his watch in charge of someone. 
Then he and his hired man waited for the coming 
of the mob. A strong guard had been placed 
around the building. Saturday night wore away, 
but no mob came. While services were being held 
Sabbath evening, guards were about armed with 
rifles. The audience seemed a trifle nervous; but 
the hall was well filled and the services closed on 
time. All knew that the mob would not fire into 
the building while church was in session. Monday 
night I heard the mob passing my house and 
listened to the first blow that was struck against the 
great clasp that held the jail door. Almost imme- 
diately the firing began and it was claimed that 
over one hundred shots were discharged. It was not 
the intention of the mob to do any shooting; they 
intended to take both men out quietly, as had been 
the "Lee Roy Brothers" in previous years, and 
hang them, possibly to the same tree. 

The notorious one afterwards told me that it was 
181 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

like this: "When my partner and I heard the mob 
coming I said to him : ' Let us get right up close to 
the door, and the moment the lock is broke, let us 
throw the door open and run for our lives ; put your 
head down and jump right into the crowd. You 
run to the left and I will run to the right.' " This 
they did, and it was not what the mob expected. 
The hired man was killed, but the other made his 
escape. It was a moonlight night, and he told 
me: "I could see where the balls struck my 
shadow." 

He was afterwards shot in the leg, brought back, 
tried and acquitted. Then, in a few years, he was 
shot in the neck and chest. The sheriff used a 
shotgun at short range. This happened in the 
night, near where my boys were camping. But 
after he was shot the sheriff and his men did not 
dare go along the road, knowing the desperate char- 
acter of the man, and they were wise in their 
action. He waited to kill them, and finally took 
the saddle from the animal he was riding, saddled 
his own mule and rode some distance to a ranch, 
where he went to bed, and was found the next 
morning weak from the loss of blood. 

The next night after the mob attempted to lynch 
both men and only succeeded in killing one, I 
182 



PICKING BULLETS FROM THE PULPIT 

picked up two bullets from my pulpit; they had 
gone through the siding and the plastering. Then 
they struck the ceiling and dropped upon the pul- 
pit. I have them now. 



183 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

A BURRO TAKES PART IN CHURCH SERVICE 

"The devil cannot stand music." — Luther. 

It is often said that ministers' children are mis- 
chievous. I do not see why they should differ from 
those of other men, unless they be more patient 
because frequently compelled to wait a long while 
for what they need by reason of the fact that the 
salary of the minister is slow in coming- into his 
possession. 

I confess, however, to having one son who enjoys 
the ludicrous as well as most boys, and said boy at 
one time owned one of the most knowing and 
musical "Rocky Mountain canaries" that it has been 
my privilege to see or hear. If it could get loose 
from its lariat when the boys were out camping, it 
would eat up their dinner and then remain near the 
cart until they came for their meal; then look 
abused when punished for eating the "grub." 

One Sabbath evening I noticed that the burro was 
hitched to a post near the back window of the 
church. I said to Ward: "Take that burro and tie 
184 



A BURRO TAKES PART IN SERVICE 

it farther away from the church, for if you don't, 
just as soon as I commence preaching it will begin 
braying." Ward replied, "Maud" (that was the 
burro's name) "has been better trained than that." 
Believing in good training, I said no more. 

Maud gave me a decidedly friendly look as I 
passed her on my way to the church, as if to say : 
"Parson, I'll do what I can to help you out 
to-night. ' ' Sure enough, when I was well into my 
sermon, "Maud" began. First a solo — low, clear, 
penetrating, not altogether unmusical ; then a kind 
of duet, the outgoing breath making one sort of 
noise, the incoming another. This was followed by 
a quartet, composed of the most hideous noises 
that it was possible for one of her species to make. 
By that time I had stopped; but "Maud," true to 
her nature, continued. The congregation could not 
contain themselves; for the burros of the neighbor- 
hood began answering, and I really think from the 
way that "Maud" then let out her voice that she 
thought it was an encore. The boy was in the con- 
gregation, and looked as though he wished that 
burro out of the country; for no minister's son 
would intentionally have his father interrupted 
while preaching. 

At times the burro does as the owner wishes, 
185 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

again otherwise. "Maud" once took it into her 
head to cross the D. & R. G. Railroad track as the 
train was coming; and having determined to do so, 
her owners saved her life and theirs by jumping on 
the shafts of the cart and, by the use of one line and 
the long ears of the burro, guided her into a fence 
as the train rushed by within a few feet. 

Burros are not noted for either brains or fear, 
unless it be fear of wild animals. One night during 
the early days of the San Juan excitement a moun- 
tain lion was prowling around my camp. The burro 
I then had was a big "jack," but he was so fright- 
ened that he would stand with his head over my 
body. By the light of the campfire I could see that 
he was trembling like a "leaf of a tree." 



186 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



TWO MEN LYNCHED 



"Death tarries not in its approach to the unfortunate and the 
abandoned." — Miss Annie E. Dickenson. 

On general principles we condemn lynch-law; 
first, as being in itself a breaking of the law and a 
crime against good government; second, as setting 
a bad example to the rising generation; and third, 
as giving an excuse to bad men to take the law into 
their own hands that they may wreak their venge- 
ance upon men who do not deserve hanging. 

Yet every man who has seen much of frontier life 
will, I think, agree with me when I say that hanging 
is the only thing that will make some men quit their 
cussedness. 

Hinsdale County, of which Lake City is the county 
seat, had one of the best sheriffs that ever held that 
office in Colorado. A man as kindly in his disposi- 
tion as he was brave, as ready to assist the needy as 
he was to assist his own family — the one man who 
had helped me do a large part of the rough carpen- 
ter work on our first church over the range, free of 
charge. Mr. Campbell was a credit to our camp. 
187 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

One night he was murdered, while doing his duty as 
an officer of the law, by about as vile a specimen 
of humanity as could be found. This murderer, 
together with a pal named "Shortie," was cap- 
tured, tried in the minds of the people, found 
worthy of death, and hanged. So far as I know, 
everyone lynched in southwestern Colorado, during 
my residence in that part of the state for nearly 
thirteen years, deserved all they received. True, 
many were killed in a way that looked as though the 
law was taken out of the hands of the officers and 
put into the hands of those who went for the law- 
breakers. 

This same sheriff once invited me to capture an 
escaped criminal. He asked if I was going over 
into the Animas country, a distance of one hundred 
miles, over as rough a trail as could be found in the 
Rocky Mountains. I replied that was my inten- 
tion. Said he: "It is a long, hard trip, and I don't 
care to go on uncertainties. I have information 
that a hard character" (who had escaped, giving his 
name) "is in that country. If you will bring him 
back with you I will see that you are well paid for 
your trouble; I know you can do it if you will." 
Ministers who are going through a country looking 
after the organization of churches in new settle- 

188 



TWO MEN LYNCHED 

ments are not liable to spend their time looking for 
escaped law-breakers. I always went well armed, 
but not for that purpose. There was something 
that occurred during the height of the excitement of 
the first great rush that seemed absolutely neces- 
sary for the success of church work and good order ; 
this caused the sheriff to make the proposition ; but 
a work of necessity for a minister or a sheriff is 
quite different. 



i8y 



CHAPTER XXXIX 



A WISE WALK. 



"The introduction of a discourse should be a rifle-shot at the 
theme." —Rev. IV. M. Paxton, D.D. 

The following sermon was preached by the 
Author in the Central Presbyterian Church of Den- 
ver, Colorado, April n, 1893, as retiring Moderator 
of Denver Presbytery : 

TEXT (Colossians 4: 5.): 
"Walk in wisdom toward them that are without." 

Because a command is difficult to obey it does not 
lessen its force or release us from our duty, provid- 
ing the command be given by one who has the right 
to give it. We consider it right to obey the com- 
mands of earthly rulers, when they are given for the 
good of the nation to which we belong. This is 
right, for it has the word of God for its foundation. 
"The powers that be are ordained of God,", and 
should be obeyed. 

In our text we have a command given by one who 
has the right to command, and because we have 
found from past experience that there is difficulty 



A WISE WALK 

in obeying, that does not lessen the force of the com- 
mand nor our obligation to try, by God's help, to 
obey. 

"Walk in wisdom toward them that are without." 

Like the church at Colosse, to whom these words 
were written, we are surrounded by many who do 
not believe as we do, who have not accepted the 
Lord Jesus Christ as their ruler; but who say, 
"This man shall not rule over us." We come in 
contact with them daily; they are in our homes, 
among our associates; sometimes they are intimate 
friends, beloved because of their nobleness and 
generosity; often they are partners in life with 
those who are followers of Christ; thousands of 
them are the children of pious parents, while many 
are the baptized children of the church. 

True, all is not darkness around us, nor are we 
surrounded with just the same class of people that 
the Colossians were ; yet we find much that ought 
not to be passed by unnoticed. Occasionally we 
find dwelling under the same roof persons of such 
opposite tastes, views, and education, that to hear 
them talk you would suppose there were gods many 
and saviors not a few ; and you are soon convinced 
that one follows the true God, while of the other you 
191 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 
can truthfully say, he is a follower of strange 



We may say, this is not as it should be ; this is not 
as we would like to see it; this shows that all are 
not walking in that straight and narrow path which 
leads heavenward; but on the contrary many are 
walking in the broad way which leadeth to destruc- 
tion. We should bear in mind that a dislike of 
what we see and what we know to be wrong in 
others will not convince them of their error. Our 
words and actions when coming from the heart and 
blessed of God, and not our dislikes, will lead those 
who are in the wrong to see their error and forsake 
their evil ways. 

Of the many stubborn facts that we have to face 
in this world I have mentioned but a few. What 
are we going to do about all this? How are we going 
to help society? How are we going to elevate those 
who need it? We are told in our text to walk 
"wisely toward them"; not to shun them; not 
to treat those who are "without" as though we were 
better than they by nature ; but show that we are 
better by grace, by what our acceptance, faith in, 
and association with Christ, love for, and com- 
munion with God, and the proper treatment of the 
heavenly guest, who dwells in our hearts, has made 
192 



A WISE WALK 

us. Paul acted wisely in his day toward those who 
were without. "And unto the Jews I became as a 
Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are 
under the law, as under the law, that I might gain 
them that are under the law ; to them that are without 
law, as without law, (being not without law to God, 
but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them 
that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, 
that I might gain the weak ; I am made all things 
to all men, that I might by all means save some." 

"And this I do for the Gospel's sake." We see 
by this that Paul was willing, in all reasonable and 
right matters, to conform to the wishes of the people. 
It was not from fear, for Paul was a brave man ; but 
for the "Gospel's sake," that he might lawfully 
benefit those with whom he associated, whether 
they were within or "without." Verily, he walked 
wisely. 

By an examination of our hearts we discover 
that we are not perfect ; and should this examination 
be with a view to bringing ourselves to see our duty 
toward those around us, we will see that it is wrong- 
to allow dislikes to hinder us in our walk "toward 
them that are without." "Walking wisely" does 
not mean pharisaically, ostentatiously, or unkindly; 
neither are we to conclude that it means to pass by 
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PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

on the other side, as did the Levite, look at them, 
and then pass them by; but to walk "in newness of 
life," "worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called" ; walk circumspectly, with one object in 
view — the glory of God and the good of our fellow 
men. 

If we would "walk wisely" toward "them that are 
without," we must walk charitably toward one 
another; with brotherly love; in honor preferring 
one another. "Not minding high things, but conde- 
scending to men of low estate;" neither will we "be 
wise in our own conceit." But someone may say 
it is easier to preach than to practice ; how am I to 
get the wisdom that will enable me to "walk wisely 
toward them that are without"? The true and only 
way is recorded in God's word: "If any of you lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men 
liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given 
him. ' ' 

It is extremely difficult to tell just where we 
should draw the line that will remind us that we are 
to walk kindly, courteously, unselfishly and hospi- 
tably "toward them that are without," and at the 
same time carefully — yea, even cautiously — lest we 
be led to walk with them instead of walking wisely 
toward them. We, of ourselves, are not able to lay 
194 



A WISE WALK 

down rules by which to go, but God has done so in 
His word. Be careful and guarded in all your con- 
versation with the world, neither adopt questionable 
customs. For "evil communications corrupt good 
manners." Sit not in "the seat of the scornful," go 
not with the multitude to do evil. Be careful not to 
hurt the feelings of anyone, nor increase their preju- 
dice against religion ; neither give anyone an occa- 
sion of dislike. Our object should ever be the 
same — to do them all the good we can. May our 
speech be seasoned with salt and our discourse be 
such as becometh Christians ; not making ourselves 
and our religion displeasing to them; not forcing 
our religion upon them. Yet, "be ye always ready 
to give an answer to every man who asketh you a 
reason for the hope that is in you with meekness 
and fear." 

By examining our text we see that "walking 
wisely toward them that are without" includes walk- 
ing wisely toward them that are within. For, if we 
walk unwisely toward them that are within, how, 
let me ask, are we to walk wisely toward them that 
are "without"? The root of wise action must be 
well watered by the graces that make our lives 
beautiful to them that are within ere the fruit of 
wise action will appear to them that are "without." 
i95 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Probably we would see more fruit for our labor 
should we bear in mind continually that our every 
act, whether it be wise or unwise, is noticed by our 
heavenly Father ; and that most of our acts, wise or 
unwise, are noticed by our fellow men ; for, as the 
apostle tells us, "we are made a spectacle to the 
world, and to angels, and to men. ' ' This being 
true, should we not give heed to the words of our 
text? "The church of God is like a city of which all 
believers are the inhabitants, connected with each 
other by mutual relationship." Our walls are seen 
by the inhabitants of this world, and our confession 
causes us to be marked by them ; we, by our pro- 
fession, claim to be "children of light." We who 
are within know this, and so do those who are 
"without" Should we be ashamed of this? Should 
we try to walk among God's people in such a way 
that those who are in the church of Christ cannot 
distinguish us from the worldling? In a word, shall 
we "let our light shine," or shall we "hide it under 
a bushel"? If we are letting our light shine we are 
acting wisely and justly toward them that are with- 
out; for they have great need of our assistance; 
they need to be made willing to be led, and then 
led in such a way as not to become disgusted with 
their leader. I know nothing that requires more 
196 



A WISE WALK 

wisdom than is needed in our walk toward those 
who make no profession of religion. If we fall in 
the presence of those who" are Christ's, we wound 
them and cause their hearts to be grieved ; but we 
are inside the city walls, where Christ reigns, and 
where charity and forbearance sit beside the judge; 
and where jurors are supposed, at least, to delight 
in mercy rather than sacrifice. But when we fall in 
the presence of those who make no profession of 
religion we not only grieve the hearts of God's chil- 
dren, but bring reproach upon the cause of Him we 
love. And while charity is often found where we 
least expect it, and least profession is made, yet the 
evil resulting from our fall may be such that a great 
many wise actions on the part of the prudent cannot 
rectify our mistake. I have often thought that the 
most severe test to which we are subjected in life's 
school of trial is that of "walking wisely toward 
them that are without. ' ' They try us in so many 
different ways and get the advantage of us so fre- 
quently, because every time we are provoked to do 
or say an unwise thing they have it. Those who 
are without judge of religion, not from the pro- 
fession we make, but from the life we lead ; not from 
what they hear preached on the Sabbath day, or 
from the books we place in their hands ; neither do 
197 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN- 

they judge of religion from what they hear of its 
founders, but from what they see in our lives ; they 
judge our religion by our daily walk and conversa- 
tion ; they know whether or not a man's religion is 
swallowed up in his profession. The world's people 
draw the line of demarkation very plainly between 
what they call a wise or an unwise walk in a Chris- 
tian. It often happens that they are very exacting ; 
having made no profession they claim great lati- 
tude — but expect the followers of Christ to be 
almost perfect. This, at times, is rather annoying, 
and we think unjust; yet we must admit that we, by 
our profession, have said to the world, We walk on 
a higher plane than you do, we have been "born 
again," "old things are passed away; behold, all 
things are become new." Does not such a pro- 
fession call for a wise walk toward them that are 
without? Walking wisely is something that we owe 
to God, to the Church, the world, and to our own 
soul. By a careful study of God's word we will be 
convinced that great good will result to our own 
souls and to the souls of those with whom we come 
in contact by a cheerful and ready obedience to this 
command. 

David, in his vow of godliness, said: "I will 
behave myself wisely in a perfect way. " David was 
198 



A WISE WALK 

determined to walk wisely in everything, at home 
and abroad. Have a good rule and walk by it. 
Remember that the steps of a good man are 
"ordered by the Lord." When David was a young 
man he behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and 
the Lord was with him. "Wherefore, when Saul 
saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was 
afraid of him." "But all Israel and Judah loved 
David, because he went out and came in before 
them. " 

It is not enough that we walk wisely one day, or 
six days in the week; but we must walk wisely 
every day. Neither will any excuse that we offer 
for an unwise walk be accepted by God. Our only 
way is to ask pardon for the past, if our walk has 
been an unwise one, and seek to walk in wisdom's 
ways in the future. If it is a fact, and not a mere 
profession, that the word of God is our rule, we will 
be ruled by it; and if God's glory be our aim in it 
all, we will find to our joy that that unseen hand is 
leading us day by day, and our lives will be "hid 
with Christ in God." 

Walking wisely, like almost everything else, is 

made easier by practice. This truth we gather 

from the experience of God's children in all ages. 

At first, the old man within, and temptation with- 

199 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

out, caused them to take many unwise steps ; but by 
a careful and prayerful study of God's word they 
saw where they failed. They saw that they had 
trusted to their own wisdom instead of trusting to 
the guidance of God's Holy Spirit; this discovery 
led them to seek Divine aid in their walk; and by 
the aid given they were enabled to walk wisely. 
Not only toward those who were within, but also 
toward those who were "without." I know that it 
is human to become tired of trying at times; we 
make good resolves, we think we are as careful as it 
is possible for a human being to be ; we conclude 
that our walk is just about right, everything seems 
to be going straight, when all at once we make a 
false step. Oh ! how our hearts fail us in such an 
hour, and how apt we are to drop our heads and 
take several unwise steps before we stop and raise 
our eyes heavenward and ask the assistance we so 
much need ! This should not discourage, but cause 
us to see our continual need of Divine aid. We are 
in an enemy's country, and as long as life lasts we 
will be tried daily; our walk will be noticed and 
every misstep seen; and every step will influence 
those with whom we associate, either for good or 
evil. If we walk wisely "toward them that are 
without, ' ' we have good hope of winning them to 



A WISE WALK 

Christ. Our every act will be a step on which they 
can rise heavenward. We may think that our 
influence is not felt in this world, but it is ; we may 
not be conscious of it; we may not see any good 
resulting from our wise walk ; it may be God's will 
to gather in the rich, ripe, golden sheaves without 
our knowledge. God may see that an immediate 
return of what we have hoped, and for which we 
have prayed, would only lead us to take an unwise 
step. Therefore, he hides, as it were, the golden 
sheaves that have ripened under the good influence 
of our wise walk. We think at times if we could 
only see just what effect our walk was having upon 
those around us that it would be of great assistance 
to us. Let us stop and reverse this for one moment 
by asking ourselves, what effect does the walk of 
others have on us? What will apply to ourselves 
will apply to others; the same rule works both 
ways. If the wise walk of a neighbor or a friend is 
a benefit to us, let us bear in mind that a wise walk 
on our part will be of equal benefit to them. 

We find every word in the Book of Life of great 
benefit in the battle of life; nothing has been 
placed there in vain. True, there are some pass- 
ages of Scripture like great lighthouses on the 
shores of time, warning men, throwing light before 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

them, and showing to the world the channel through 
which we must sail if we would reach that safe and 
quiet haven of eternal rest ; but lesser lights are needed 
and are of greater importance than we are aware ; 
for while they do not give as much light as some 
others, they guide man with equal sureness through 
the darkness that is around lesser temptations. 

We may consider that the words of our text are 
like a very small light, not of much use to guide 
man to glory and to God ; I admit that it is not as 
great as some others, yet if we walk in the light 
which a careful study of our text will give, we will 
find that its apparent dimness is caused by lack of 
appreciation on our part; the light is there, the 
truth is there, words of wisdom compose it. God 
inspired the true and faithful apostle to the Gentiles 
to write it, and instruction such as is needed can be 
found therein if we search for it. Then why not 
treasure it up in good and honest hearts, seeking 
God's help that we may obey the command given? 

"Walking in wisdom toward them that are with- 
out. " Life, you know, is made up of seconds, min- 
utes, hours and days, as well as years ; so our walk 
is made up of steps, or actions ; some taken hastily, 
some after due consideration, yet all go toward 
making up our walk. This being true, how careful 
202 



A WISE WALK 

should we be that we are making a right use of every 
minute and taking a right step every time! 

In conclusion, I desire to say : I hope that what 
has been said on the subject of walking wisely will 
be remembered by all who read this sermon. Every 
professing Christian should walk wisely, circum- 
spectly and carefully "toward them that are with- 
out," and cordially, hospitably and peaceably toward 
them that are within ; that we may walk with Christ 
while on earth, and after death dwell with him on 
high. 



203 



CHAPTER XL 

NO WASTE IN THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

"If I can by a lucky chance, in these days of evil, rub out 
one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile the heavy heart 
of one moment of sadness ; if I can, now and then, penetrate 
the gathering film of misanthropy, prompt a benevolent view 
of human nature, and make my reader more in a good humor 
with his fellow beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not 
then have written entirely in vain." — Washmgtoji Irving. 

The following sermon was preached by the 
Author in the First Presbyterian Church of Colo- 
rado Springs, October 18, 1898, as retiring Moder- 
ator of the Synod of Colorado : 

Subject— "No Waste in the Ministry of Love." 

TEXT (St. John 12: 7.): 
"Then said Jesus, Let her alone; against the day of my 
burying hath she done this." 

It must have touched the heart of the Lord Jesus 
when Mary anointed his feet, and then wiped them 
with her hair. And while Judas tried to make out 
that there had been a waste, Jesus let his disciples 
know that "against the day of his burying she kept 
this, ' ' and has taught his followers that there is no 
waste in the ministry of love. I believe there may 
be mistakes, yet in this blessed ministry there can 
204 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

be no waste ; and undoubtedly there are fewer mis- 
takes in love's ministry than in any other. I do not 
believe that "love is blind," although many things 
are credited to love that are devoid of soundness, 
but when traced to the proper source prove to be 
the acts of an almost insane jealousy. Ignorance 
often ignores the ministry of love and claims that 
some of the noblest sacrifices made by men and 
women are a waste of time, talents and means; but 
the fault lies with those who make the criticism, and 
not with those who do the work, make the sacrifices, 
and love the Master. 

Among all the kindnesses shown our Lord by 
those who dwelt in that hospitable home in Bethany, 
by Martha, Mary and Lazarus, I believe that this 
kindness done by Mary was the greatest and appre- 
ciated the most by him. The preciousness of the 
ointment surely had its value in the eyes of our 
Savior, yet the love that crowned the gift was 
valued a thousand-fold more. Water and a coarse 
towel would have answered the purpose for bathing 
and wiping the feet of Jesus on ordinary occasions ; 
but now that the time was approaching when the 
feet of our Lord would be nailed to the cross, there 
was nothing too precious with which to bathe them, 
and a woman's hair, which is her glory, was not too 
205 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

sacred to be used in the place of a towel. There are 
times when there should be an outlay of that which 
is precious, yea, times when we should show our 
love for the Savior by giving to him that which is 
of the greatest value; even life, if that becomes 
necessary. There are times when we should give 
that which is precious to those on earth. 

We are not told how wide was the circle of Mary's 
acquaintances, nor how influential she was in society. 
But we are told how she loved Jesus, and so long as 
the world stands, her great act of love will remain 
as evidence that there is no waste in the ministry of 
love. Had Mary been the wife or the daughter of 
an earthly king, her influence in her day might have 
been far wider for good or evil ; but how soon would 
she have been forgotten ! and now instead of her 
name being mentioned in loving remembrance 
wherever the Gospel of Christ is preached, it would 
have been locked fast in the past. A narrow wall, 
so far as earthly fame in Palestine went, had been 
built around Mary. Yet by the ministry of love 
that wall has been extended, until to-day it encircles 
the world. Love built that wall, and the strength 
of Jehovah defends it; therefore the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it. "Verily I say unto 
you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

the whole world, there shall this also, that this 
woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. ' ' 

Evidently the ointment Mary used on this occa- 
sion was rare and difficult to obtain, "of great 
value" ; but in her eyes nothing was too valuable to 
be used for the comfort, or the glory of her Lord. 

Since the day that the words of the text were 
spoken, great changes have come over the face of 
the earth ; barren wastes have been made to blos- 
som like the rose ; while part of the earth that was 
highly cultivated then is almost a desert now. The 
channels of rivers have changed. Nations that 
were not in existence then have become the leading 
nations of the world. Change is written every- 
where. Yet with all the changes written across 
earth's face, no change has come to the hearts of 
men ; they are still deceitful above all things and 
desperately wicked; with here and there an oasis of 
love for some human being, if not for God, in every 
heart; with some here and others in different 
places who do have a high appreciation of all that is 
true, pure and soul-ennobling, firmly believing and 
acting on their belief in the blessed truth that there 
is no waste in the ministry of love. 

How often do we hear men, to whom we had 
given credit of knowing better, speak of the waste 
207 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

there is both in money and men in the great work 
of foreign missions, and in the equally great work 
of home missions! Those of intelligence speak of 
the waste of life and property that has been cheer- 
fully laid upon our country's altar. But believe it, 
no matter how much of that which is dear to the 
hearts of true men and women may be laid upon 
God's altar, or our country's altar, there is no waste 
when it helps to fill out the ministry of love. 

Speaking of the "alabaster box of very precious 
ointment" which Mary broke, and of her knowledge 
of that "decease" of which Christ spoke so fre- 
quently, as well as her love for Jesus, one has said: 
"It is not unreasonable to suppose, remembering 
the fondness of Jewish women for such perfumes, 
that Mary may have had that alabaster box of very 
costly ointment from olden days, before she had 
learned to serve Christ; then, when she came to 
know him, and must have learned how constantly 
that decease, of which he ever spoke, was before his 
mind, she may have put it aside, 'kept it against 
the day of his burying. ' ' ' To me this would be just 
like a woman; to keep a thing until love suggested 
it was time to use it. How often our mothers did 
that ! How often do those who are dearer than life to 
our hearts do the same thing now — keep something 

2o3 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

for us, precious because it has been kept till the 
right time, as well as precious in itself, and then 
lovingly bestow it upon us ! 

Probably Mary knew better than any other fol- 
lower of Jesus that his earthly ministry would soon 
cease. She may have been aware that this anoint- 
ing was "against the day of his burying," before 
Jesus told his disciples in her presence that it was. 
If so, then beyond doubt her faith made it a twofold 
anointing — that of the best guest of the feast and 
that of preparation for that burial which of all 
others she apprehended was so terribly near. And 
deep humility now offered what earnest love had 
provided, and intense faith, in view of what was 
coming, applied. And so she poured ointment over 
his head, over his feet ; then, stooping down, wiped 
them with her hair, as if not only in evidence of 
service and love, but in fellowship of his death. 
"And the house was filled" — and to all time his 
house, the church, is filled "with the odor of the 
ointment." 

Waste this was in the eyes of the disciples, but not 
waste in the eyes of Mary's Lord, and of our Lord, 
because it was a service of love, and great was 
Mary's reward. And believe it, dear hearers, great 
will be our reward, if we render unto Jesus the 
209 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

service of love. For the harder we work in the 
Master's vineyard now, the sweeter will be the rest 
in the house of the Master by and by, when 
earthly labors cease and heavenly joys begin. 

Jesus said: "Let her alone," and to-day he says 
to every opposer of his cause, and to every one in 
his church who is disposed to criticise acts of love 
for the Master, just because they do not coincide 
with their view: "Let my workers alone." "Hin- 
der me not, ' ' said the faithful servant when he had 
been convinced that Rebekah was the proper person 
to become his master's wife, and "Hinder me not," 
has been the cry of many a faithful servant of the 
great Master, in all ages; while those who have no 
particular interest in the upbuilding of his kingdom 
hinder them in ,their work in so many ways. One 
way is by constantly crying: "To what purpose is 
this waste?" Oh, why do you do as you do? 
Why don't you do as we wish you to do? Yes, 
regarding all who are breaking their precious box of 
ointment at the Master's feet, Jesus says to every 
fault-finder : 4 ' Let them alone — they have a good pur- 
pose in doing as they do, and the smell of the oint- 
ment is very sweet to me. You may not appreciate 
the efforts they are making to honor me, but I do. 
Let them alone ; for against the day of my coming 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

again, when 'all the tribes of the earth shall 
mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming 
in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, ' 
they are doing this. ' ' 

Love's ministry was appreciated by our Savior 
before his crucifixion and burial, and it was appre- 
ciated by him after his resurrection, when those 
faithful women went early unto the tomb where 
their Lord had been laid. When he comes again 
he will abundantly reward every one who has shown 
love for him in any way. 

When we first read of Christ's approval of Mary's 
loving act, we are liable to think that the Savior 
approves of outward display when his children seek 
to honor him; but, when we consider the matter 
carefully, we are convinced that this was no 
ordinary occasion ; no ordinary service ; one which 
ought to be commonly used in the church. This 
act of Mary, we are plainly told, was in connection 
with his burial. 

The Savior frequently enjoins us to be sober and 
moderate in the use of everything that leads toward 
that which is carnal, or only an outward observance 
of the worship of God. "God is a spirit, and they 
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and 
in truth." I am aware of the fact that many would 

211 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

have us believe that in the breaking of the alabaster 
box and in the anointing of Jesus with the precious 
ointment it contained, we find a lesson taught ; that 
costly and magnificent worship is pleasing to 
God. But men everywhere are ready to grasp 
and hold that which pleases the senses rather 
than that which is spiritual and benefits the soul. 
This accounts in part for the crowds that gather 
(upon the Lord's day) in places of amusement, 
or in places where their tastes are pleased, and 
for the few (comparatively speaking) who prefer 
going where they will hear the plain, unvarnished 
Gospel preached. "Wasting your time!" is their 
cry, when told we prefer the simple Gospel truths 
before that which suits the fancy and pleases the 
senses, but starves the soul. No one who loves the 
Lord Jesus, and desires to take part in the ministry 
of love, will say that the anointing of Jesus by 
Mary, and the wiping of his feet with her hair, were 
superfluous ; for he was soon to be buried ; and this, 
I believe, was done under the direction of God's 
Spirit, for He has influenced His children in many 
ways and on many occasions ever since the begin- 
ning of time, and will continue to do so until time 
shall end. 
What was proper for Mary to do to her Lord, 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

"against the day of his burying," would not be the 
proper thing for his followers to do now to one 
another; and while all tenderness and love should 
be shown toward the living and the dead, let us 
keep in mind, as we think of all that Jesus accom- 
plished by his death, resurrection and ascension, 
the great blessing brought to our souls by be- 
lieving in Him; that "the odors of his resurrection 
have now sufficient efficacy, without spikenard and 
costly ointment, to quicken the whole world. ' ' Also 
keep in mind that everything that we have belongs 
to the One who died for our sins and rose for our 
justification, and who now maketh intercession for 
us before His Father and our Father in heaven. 

Let us emphasize what I have already said : There 
may be mistakes in the ministry of love, yet no 
waste, that our charity may become very broad 
toward all who desire to honor the Lord Jesus 
Christ. We are not all constituted alike, nor 
have all been educated in just the same way ; conse- 
quently, what one may consider the best thing to do 
that Christ's name may be honored, others equally 
sincere and equally anxious to honor the Savior may 
not think best. Therefore, let us be careful lest we 
fall into error in our judgment regarding one 
another. We are not expected to give up our Chris- 
213 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

tian liberty, nor should we ask that others give 
up theirs ; and while retaining our own and permit- 
ting others to keep theirs, let us not be saying we 
are right and careful not to waste what belongs to 
our Lord, implying that those who differ from us are 
wasting that which should be used for the honor of 
God's name and the upbuilding of his kingdom. If 
any one, while trying to serve God honestly, makes 
mistakes (and who does not make mistakes?), let us 
not censure nor discourage him ; but the rather help 
him — or at least let him alone. 

The disciples put an unfavorable construction 
upon Mary's act, that was so filled with love, while 
Jesus approved it. And I believe that at the pres- 
ent day many acts of love, approved by the Savior, 
are disapproved by men who, like His disciples of 
old, really love Him. We pride ourselves on being 
good judges of human nature, yet we know that we 
cannot read what is in a man's heart (God alone can 
do that) ; and while we may read faces, we cannot 
interpret acts of love as they should be interpreted. 
Therefore, men will continue to misunderstand one 
another and misjudge one another and consider very 
much wasted what in reality is a sweet-smelling 
savor to God, and will, in that last great day, stand 
forth as something none will then be ashamed to 
214 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

acknowledge as a part of the good work of the true 
ministry of love. 

In the battle of life we find very much to try our 
faith, our patience and our love; and some of us 
may have natures that are hard to control. We find 
that the old man will persist in asserting himself, 
even while we are engaged in the Master's service, 
trying to honor Him. Many have been wounded in 
days that have long since passed away, and those 
wounds, while healed, have left deep scars. There- 
fore, as we journey heavenward, let us be kindly 
and affectionate toward one another, remembering 
that, "when a scar cannot be taken away, the next 
kind office is to hide it." "Then said Jesus, Let 
her alone: against the day of my burying hath she 
kept this." She meant well; and in Christ's sight, 
and in reality, there was no waste, because in the 
ministry of love there can be none. 

At times I have wondered whether this Mary was 
naturally diffident or whether she was inclined to 
let her affections be known (most likely the former), 
for I believe, with Ruskin, that "the best women 
are indeed necessarily the most difficult to know; 
they are recognized chiefly in the happiness of their 
husbands and the nobleness of their children. They 
are only to be divined, not discerned, by the 
215 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

stranger and sometimes seem almost helpless 
except in their homes. ' ' But let this be as it may, 
we know that Jesus appreciated what Mary did. 
And to-day He appreciates the ministry of love in 
which so many faithful women are engaged, as well 
as the work performed by His embassadors. Were 
it not true that we have the immutable word of God 
for it, that "the work of a man shall He render unto 
him, and cause every man to find according to his 
ways," the large majority of His laborers would 
find but little to encourage them to continue in the 
work. 

"The best things in this world are not the best 
things God provides for his children." Humanly 
speaking, the opposite is generally true. And occa- 
sionally his embassadors see the same spirit which 
was manifested toward Christ while he was in the 
flesh. One day they cried, "Hosanna!" and 
another day they cried, "Crucify him!" Yet, after 
all, we recognize the points in Whitcomb Riley's 
"Philosophy": 

"The signs is bad when folks commence 
A findin' fault with Providence, 
And balkin' 'cause the earth don't shake 
At ev'ry prancing step they take. 
216 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

No man is great till he can see 
How less than little he would be 
Ef stripped to self, and stark and bare 
He hung his sign out anywhere. 

"My doctrine is to lay aside 
Contentions, and be satisfied. 
Jest do your best, and praise er blame 
That follows that, counts jest the same; 
I've alius noticed great success 
Is mixed with troubles, more or less ; 
And it's the man who does the best 
That gets more kicks than all the rest." 

But, when laboring for the upbuilding of the 
Master's kingdom, let come what will. Since our 
labor is one of love, let us go forward courageously 
and faithfully to the end ; and whether we are called 
upon to walk joyfully or sorrowfully, let us keep 
close to Christ, doing all things as unto the Lord and 
not as unto men ; seeing to it that no man take our 
crown. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life. " 

From a human standpoint I believe that many 
ministers waste most of their time and that the 
money spent on them is wasted, because little 
appreciation is shown by those among whom they 
labor ; and the results, viewed in human light, are 
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PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

so small that all is wasted. Yet, knowing as they 
do that even the waste places of the earth need the 
refreshing showers of Divine grace, and that the 
Gospel must be preached in all the world whether 
men will hear or forbear, and that their ministry is 
one of love, they labor on, leaving the results to 
God. 

It is but natural that every minister should have 
some appreciation of his ability to occupy a position 
of prominence; and although believing that the 
valley of humiliation bears fairer fruit — fruit that 
has more of heaven's sweetness in it — than was ever 
grown on the hilltop of exaltation and praise, 
although reached by a laudable ambition success- 
fully realized, yet he would just as soon see other 
brethren in that fruitful valley. Let us remember 
what Anne of Austria, the Queen of France, said to 
her implacable enemy, Cardinal Richelieu: "My 
Lord-Cardinal, there is one fact which you seem to 
have entirely forgotten — God is a sure paymaster. 
He may not pay at the end of every week, month or 
year; but I charge you, remember that he pays in 
the end." Yes, the Savior has promised that the 
giving of a "cup of cold water only, in the name 
of a disciple, shall in no wise lose its reward." 

The work some of God's laborers perform may be 



THE MINISTRY OF LOVE 

very hard, and the pay very small, while the posi- 
tion they occupy is far from prominent in the eyes 
of their fellow men ; but we believe that in that last 
great day, when the secrets of all hearts will be 
made known, and every man's work shall be tried 
by fire, and judged by One who is just as well as 
merciful, the assembled hosts before God's tribunal 
will acknowledge that there is no waste in the min- 
istry of love, and the humblest worker in the Mas- 
ter's vineyard will be satisfied, with the reward 
given. 

God help us to realize that there is a gloriously 
bright side to His service now, and a great reward 
hereafter ; and may the keynote to all that shall be 
done at this meeting of Synod be : No waste in 
the ministry of love. Daniel Webster said: "If we 
work upon marble, it will perish ; if we work upon 
brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples, they 
will crumble into dust; but if we work upon 
immortal minds, if we imbue them with principles, 
with the just fear of God and love of our fellow 
men, we engrave on those tablets something which 
will brighten to all eternity. ' ' 

"Now, the God of peace that brought again from 
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove- 
219 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

nant, make you perfect in every good work to do 
His will, working in you that which is well pleasing 
in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be 
glory forever and ever. Amen." 



CHAPTER XLI 

A SAN JUAN JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, IN 1878 

' ' Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape 
whipping?" — Shakespeare. 

" The kindness of some is too much like an echo; it returns 
exactly the counterpart of what it receives and neither more 
nor less." — Bowes. 

During an exciting political campaign, when two 
of our then noted politicians were stumping the 
state, indulging in joint debate in the interests of 
their respective parties in general and their own 
interests in particular, these men decided that even 
the remote San Juan should not be neglected. 
Therefore, they staged it wherever the lines of Bar- 
low & Sanderson would carry them; and where 
there was no stage route they adopted the custom- 
ary mode of travel (either horseback or on foot). 
In this way the small camps at timber line were 
reached and all had the privilege of hearing these 
politicians debate on the issues of the day. 

Notice was sent to Mineral Point, a camp at the 
head of the Uncompahgre River, about eleven 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

thousand feet above sea-level, that on a certain 
night these politicians would speak to the inhabit- 
ants of the camp and surrounding region. The 
speaking was in the open air and the debate lasted 
over four hours. After the meeting all adjourned 
to the saloons to discuss the political situation ; con- 
sequently, it was nearly morning when the miners 
"turned in" to get a few hours of sleep. 

Many having come a long distance to hear the 
speakers, friends invited them to their cabins. The 
man holding the prominent position of Justice of 
the Peace was also honored with the position of 
Coroner. This judge invited eight or ten visitors to 
lie on the floor of his cabin, he furnishing the 
blankets. In order to do the proper thing, he got 
up before the others were awake and prepared 
breakfast for the crowd. When the meal was about 
ready he awoke his company. The effects of poor 
politics and worse whisky had been rather stupe- 
fying. One man was inclined to sleep, although 
breakfast had been ready some time. Finally it was 
decided to let him sleep. But when the rest had 
eaten their morning meal it was discovered that 
the man lying on the dirt floor of the cabin was 
dead. 

The judge immediately impaneled a coroner's 




CELEBRATED BOX CANON, ONE FOURTH OF A MILE FROM OURAY. 




FIRST GRAND JURY IN OURAY 



A SAN JUAN JUSTICE 

jury and asked them to bring in a verdict as to the 
cause of their companion's death. This is the way 
the indignant judge explained matters to me. Said 
he: "What do you think the verdict was, Mr. 
Darley?" I had a good idea of what caused the 
man's death, but did not care to express my opinion 
in the matter. Then the judge, all excited, gave 
the shamefulness of the verdict, it being "Whisky." 
"Shameful," said he; "the young man has a fine 
mother and a nice sister living back East, and how 
could I write to them that the jury brought in a 
verdict of death by whisky?" So he talked straight 
to these men who had sworn to bring in a proper 
verdict, and told them they must try again. But 
after the second attempt to discover the cause of the 
man's death, nearly the same verdict was brought 
in as before. The judge waxed eloquent on the 
tenderness of the ties that bound the mother, brother 
and sister to the deceased. He appealed to the jury 
as to men who had some idea of the fitness of things, 
and asked how they would have liked such a verdict 
brought in about them had they died as their friend. 
The third time the verdict was correct — "heart 
failure." Then the judge said: "That is good; 
now I will write a nice letter to his mother and 
sister, and tell them what the verdict of the jury 
223 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

was ; and they will never know the truth about his 
death." 

As I looked into the face of this San Juan Justice 
of the Peace, Coroner, and a little of almost every- 
thing, I felt that after all, this man, rough in 
appearance and willing to use his office to shield a 
friend, had a good quantity of the milk of human 
kindness in his heart. I knew the foreman of the 
jury, and therefore was a little surprised that he 
should allow a verdict in the first place that reflected 
on the character of the dead. But possibly there 
were conscientious scruples in the way. The jury 
were sworn to bring in a truthful verdict. How- 
ever, in those days, friendship generally conquered 
and conscientious scruples gave way to surround- 
ings. Men stood for their friends and defended 
their good names, whether they were alive or dead. 



224 



PERFECTION 

"Perfection!" — God's goal in the distance, 
Far ahead of the best that we do ; 

'Way beyond our own lifelong endeavor, 
The goal never reached, though by few. 

How, then, shall we offer our service 
To the One who is perfect and just? 

How enter His presence rejoicing, 
And look to His mercy in trust? 

Our efforts are feeble and falt'ring, 

Our prayers rise in blemish and doubt ; 

Our aims and our hopes are but weak ones: 
We turn not to face square about. 

But Christ will present us all blameless 

Before Him the angels adore ; 
And His merits will gain us redemption, 

Though our service and spirit are poor. 

For the work that we do for our Master, 
Though lacking in purpose and power, 

Will be taken as worthy acceptance, 
Through Christ, and Calvary's hour. 



PIONEERING IN THE SAN JUAN 

Mistakes will happen most surely, 
And error will creep in unknown; 

Yet Christ has made perfect atonement, 
And the Father still calls us His own. 

—Rev. Geo. S. Darley. 

I will go forth 'mong men, not mailed in scorn, 
But in the armor of a pure intent. 
Great duties are before me, and great songs, 
And whether crowned or crownless when I fall, 
It matters not, so as God's work is done." 

— Alexander Smith. 



THE END 



JUL ^ W 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





017 056 254 9 



